By ASBMT President John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD
There’s something really special about being part of a community like ASBMT. Not only do we create strong friendships with our colleagues, we get the chance to share with one another the incredible things we’re doing.
Our organization is made up of several different types of professionals. From researchers to clinicians, we all bring something unique to the table. Which is why I was delighted to attend ASBMT’s CEC meeting in Nashville on Sept. 20.
The CEC was phenomenally well attended. The talks covered many aspects of transplant and cellular therapy treatments and were well received by all. The faculty was impressed by the interactive environment and the clear enthusiasm and excitement of the participants. Overall this was a highly impactful conference focused on cutting edge care of our complicated and critically ill transplant and cellular therapy patients.
Now that CEC is over for this year, we look forward to our next major event: the 2019 Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASBMT and CIBMTR. We are currently accepting abstracts for the conference until Oct. 12, and encourage everyone to apply. You can find more information on how to submit your abstract here.
In last month’s message, I highlighted some of the benefits of attending the conference. As I said before, the conference is a great place to connect with people and to hear about the latest and greatest developments from the cellular transplantation world. In order to create a first class conference, we need first class materials to draw from.
So many of you have had your works published in scientific publications, either as an abstract or an article. By submitting your abstracts to ASBMT, you allow your peers to not only review and learn from your findings, but to celebrate your work. You can submit your abstracts under several different categories, ranging from administration and donor health and safety, to transplantation data management and immunobiology.
There’s actually science behind the value of sharing abstracts: experts have found that sharing our findings not only drives the mechanics of our research forward, it can also drive social and political change as well. We can show the impact of our work not only to our colleagues, but to those outside the cellular transplantation community. Right now advocacy is extremely important for us. With the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid changing their rules and classifications for some CAR-T therapies and increased costs of care, it is so important that we show the world our tangible efforts to make things better for our patients.
I look forward to seeing your submissions. Let’s hope the TCT Meetings of ASBMT and CIBMTR will go off just as smoothly as CEC.