Supportive care describes a range of approaches that seek to prevent or manage the adverse effects (symptoms) of blood disorders and their treatment to improve a person’s quality of life. It includes physical, psychological, social and spiritual support for patients and their families.
This type of care may include pain or infection management; nutritional, psychological or social support interventions; rehabilitation and physical activity; medicines optimisation and palliative care.
Supportive care may be given alongside other treatments at different times in the treatment pathway, from the time of diagnosis until the end of life.
The strategic aims of the SIG are as follows:
- To bring together multidisciplinary specialists with experience and interest in supportive care approaches. Creating a community with expertise and commitment to supportive care that positively contributes to BSH’s activities, benefiting haematology practice and patients within the UK.
- To contribute to the improvement of education and training in supportive care in haematology.
- To provide a contact, coordinating and advocacy group for supportive care professionals, in conjunction with BSH.
- To contribute and provide expertise for the development of relevant BSH guidelines and good practice documents.
- To work with professional societies and other groups to advocate and disseminate supportive care messages to embed good practice.
Supportive Care SIG committee
Chair - Laura Miller
Haematology Research Dietitian. NIHR Doctoral Clinical Academic Fellow
Vice Chair- Kirsty Crozier
Haematology Advanced Clinical Practitioner
Laura Barr - BSc (Nursing)
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Dr Shireen Kassam
Consultant Haematologist, Lifestyle Medicine Physician
Wen Yuen Lim - NMP, MSc, MPharm
Highly Advanced Haematology Pharmacist
Catherine Loughran - MSc, BPharm
Consultant Pharmacist Haematology
Dr Manideepa Maji - MBBS, MD, MRCPCH
NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Haematology
Dr Natalie Murray - MBChB, BSc, MRCP
Haematology Speciality Registrar, dipIBLM / Certified lifestyle medicine physician
Tracey Small - BSc (Nursing)
Haematology CNS
Dr Priya Sriskandarajah - MBBS, BSc, MRCP, FRCPath, PhD
Consultant Haematologist in MPN and General Haematology
Dr Jennifer Vidrine - MBBS, MRCP
Consultant in Palliative & Supportive Care
Claire Woodley - BSc (Nursing), NMP, RN, PG Dip
Haematology Advanced Nurse Practitioner
Education
Supportive Care Webinar
What is Supportive Care? Managing the holistic needs of patients from transfusion to rehabilitation.
- Tuesday 24 November 2026, 08:00–09:00 (UK)
What does supportive care mean in haematology, and how is it relevant across different areas of practice?
Supportive care encompasses the wider needs of people living with haematological conditions throughout their care. Yet the term can sometimes be associated primarily with end-of-life care, rather than the much broader range of support patients may need.
This introductory webinar from the BSH Supportive Care Special Interest Group will explore what we mean by supportive care and why a consistent, broader understanding of the term matters across haematology.
Through practical examples and perspectives from across the field, the webinar will explore:
- What supportive care means and the breadth of care it can encompass.
- Why it matters across haematology, including unmet patient needs and developments in national and international policy.
- Supportive oncology, exploring how this developing approach sits within the wider supportive care landscape.
- Why supportive care is not synonymous with end-of-life care, and how we can help change established perceptions.
- Opportunities to share learning between different areas of haematology and apply supportive approaches more widely.
Sign up today
Guidelines webinar recording
Consensus methods: Developing agreement to support guidance in areas less researched or new therapies
Please see the link to this webinar here: Guidelines webinar recordings
There are currently no planned events.
Join the Supportive Care Special Interest Group
We're keen to grow our diverse multidisciplinary membership to reflect our services and patient needs.
The SIG welcomes both members and non-members of the BSH who have a special interest in supportive care and is free to join.
Why should I join the Supportive Care Special Interest Group?
All members will have access to the quarterly bulletin for training and education opportunities and information on recent guidelines, alongside opportunities for co-option onto working groups where required specialist skills are not currently available within the membership.
BSH members will have the additional opportunity to join the committee, task and finish, and guideline writing groups.
Please note you will need to create a log in account to join a SIG.
For more information please email our Volunteer Support Officer, Asia Parvez.
We want to make it easier for you to actively contribute to the work of the Supportive Care Specialist Interest Group.
If you are passionate about advancing supportive (holistic) care in haematology, or if you are involved in delivering supportive care services within haematology, we would love to hear from you. This could include areas such as exercise, nutrition, emotional wellbeing, fatigue management, palliative care, advance care planning, infection management, ambulatory medicine delivery, and other aspects of holistic patient support.
If you have ideas, experience, or work you would like to share, please complete our form. Examples of contributions include:
- Sharing an innovative practice or approach to care delivery that is working well in your area and could benefit others.
- Presenting a new project, research proposal, or grant application and seeking support, feedback, or collaboration.
- Proposing a piece of work, initiative, or activity for the group to undertake.
Suggesting a topic for future educational events or resources. - Volunteering to speak on a supportive care topic as part of our webinar series
We welcome contributions from all professional backgrounds and look forward to hearing your ideas and highlighting the excellent work taking place across the supportive care community.