We are thrilled to highlight some of the opportunities, projects, research and consultations that are currently being worked on within the wider Haematology community and beyond.
The Royal College of Pathologists' Transfusion Medicine Specialty Advisory Committee (SAC) is inviting nominations for this year’s Percy Oliver Memorial Award.
The Memorial Award is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of blood transfusion. This year’s award will be given to a person in the Medical Category.
Nominations and accompanying citations should be submitted by 5pm Friday 26 July 2024, via the Nominee Form.
Please use the citation to describe your nominee’s background, achievements, and contributions to the field of blood transfusion, in no more than 750 words; furthermore, please demonstrate the impact that they have made to the field.
Blood Cancer UK is delighted to announce that applications are now open for its new Early Career Advancement Fellowships. These fellowships are designed to support the most talented early career blood cancer researchers, who have already obtained a PhD and undertaken further research as a postdoc or equivalent, as they transition towards independence as a researcher.
Applications are encouraged from:
- Outstanding early career researchers who are dedicated to pursuing a career in blood cancer research and who are aiming to transition towards independence with the support of this fellowship.
- Candidates who have had up to a maximum of 6 years full-time equivalent active research experience since gaining their PhD. Allowances will be made for career breaks, Covid impacts and clinical activity.
- Candidates from either non-clinical or clinical backgrounds. Clinical candidates can remain clinically active for up to a maximum of 50% FTE.
- Candidates based at an academic research organisation in the UK that is able to sign up to Blood Cancer UK’s Terms and Conditions. Please note: Blood Cancer UK is unable to fund fellows based in industry.
Deadline for applications: 15.00 on 19 September 2024
Interviews: February 2025
Applicants notified of outcomes: March 2025
In 2022, the Royal College of Pathologists launched a collection of grants jointly funded by partner societies, including the RCPath/BSH Medical Elective Grant.
The BSH and RCPath jointly fund the grant, which offers up to £1,000 to support undergraduate medical students wishing to undertake an elective related to haematology.
Electives may be clinical or research-based and undertaken in any part of the world.
The deadline for submissions is Monday, 30 September 2024 and the results will be announced w/c 28 October.
Visit the RCPath Medical Electives Scheme for more information and to apply.
Are you a medical student, intern, or resident interested in choosing hematology as your specialty?
EHA offers mentorship and guidance to get familiar with hematology as a clinician and/or researcher. The program aims to provide you with a clearer idea of what hematology entails from a practical point of view and get a head start in the field.
More information can be found on their website.
The Royal College of Pathologists are looking for some images to help decorate their new building. Images representing haematology and also transfusion medicine/science would be gratefully received.
They are looking for very high quality images that are at least 300 dpi at 2.4 meters actual height. This is because if the images are lower quality than that they will pixelate when blown up to that large scale. Ideally the images should be abstract as this is an art installation rather than a pathology one, something colourful would be great.
If you have a suitable image please contact:
Daniel Ross, Chief Executive
The Royal College of Pathologists
Email: [email protected]
Become an NHS Ambassador and join the thousands of passionate NHS staff who are inspiring future generations to consider a career in Healthcare. Since the campaign began in 2018 our NHS Ambassadors have interacted with over 400,000 young people through Inspiring the Future.
The Royal College of Pathologists is recruiting new audit evaluators for haematology.
Applicants should be Fellows of the College, have knowledge of the clinical audit process and be experienced in undertaking high-quality clinical audit. Evaluators are responsible for evaluating whether the criteria and standards of audits for certification are met appropriately for your own specialty.
To apply please submit an abridged CV and a statement in support of your application (no more than 500 words), explaining how your skills and experience meet the person specification and how you would approach the role if appointed. For further information about the role, and to apply please contact Maria Marrero Feo via [email protected]
We are looking for haematologists and haematology CNSs who would like to volunteer to help review our cancer information. Our information is widely used by healthcare professionals and people affected by cancer across the UK.
As a professional reviewer, you can use your clinical expertise to help us make sure our cancer information is up to date and reflects current practice. We cover all haematology cancer types. You can tell us your area of expertise, and how often you want to review. This may be a few pages once or twice a year, or more if you are able. These are emailed to you as word documents.
If you would like to volunteer, please fill in our short survey to be added to our secure database. Your information will not be shared outside our team. If you have colleagues who may be interested, please feel free to forward them the survey link. If you would like more information, you can contact us on [email protected]
The Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK is seeking Question Writers in a variety of specialties to write questions for our MRCP(UK) Part 1 and Part 2 Written Examinations as well as our Specialty Certificate Examinations. This is a valuable opportunity to contribute to the assessment of medical knowledge and play a vital role in shaping the future generation of physicians. Upon the completion of a half day online training course, volunteers would then participate in an annual two-day hybrid Question Writing meeting at the University of Warwick in Coventry offering excellent networking opportunities, external CPD and paid expenses.
If you are interested in becoming a Question writer, please find further information (including eligibility and how to apply) here.
Projects, consultations and research
BioDrive AFS is a NIHR funded phase III study comparing standard of care prophylaxis with a biomarker monitoring approach in persons with acute leukaemia treated intensively.
The aim is to see if such an approach can safely reduce antifungal usage without compromising quality of life or patient outcomes.
The need for this study is driven by emergent problems with antimicrobial resistance, polypharmacy and antifungal-related toxicities. In addition, the increased use of novel targeted agents, most of which interact with azole antifungals, has complicated the approach to antifungal prophylaxis in this group. Current evidence supporting the use of posaconazole was generated prior to the advent of the current generation of targeted leukemia agents and prior to the availability of effective fungal biomarkers. There is no evidence to support the common practice of substituting liposomal amphotericin as an antifungal prophylactic agent in the presence of potential azole interactions.
Currently there are nearly 60 patients enrolled with no safety signals to date. The study is pragmatically designed to align with local standards of care.
We are keen to open more centres from across the United Kingdom and would welcome interest for units which treat acute leukaemia.
Please contact Dr Allsup ([email protected]) or Professor Barlow ([email protected]) for further information.”
Are you a health professional working with myeloma patients who require a spinal brace?
Would you consider undertaking a short interview about developing an intervention for these patients?
Who can take part?
I am keen to understand the views of healthcare professionals who work with these patients including, doctors, pharmacists, support workers, neurosurgeons, nurses and allied health professionals about what you think this intervention should be like.
What is involved?
A single interview lasting up to 45 minutes. It will be confidential. Interviews will be arranged at a convenient time for you either online or face-to-face.
Interested?
Please contact Joanne Land researcher for more details:
[email protected]
(UCL Research Ethics Committee reference 25343/001)
Blastic Plasmocytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm (BPDCN) International Registry
We would like to ask for your contribution in the BPDCN International Registry project.
By joining our registry, you will help us:
- to create a large database of patients with BPDCN and
- to investigate the characteristics and outcome of disease with different treatment regimens,
- to evaluate prognostic factors,
- to generate data-based prospective treatment recommendations.
You can register your interest to participate using this link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uykOE9PiaCXJ-E5snP8gPXxRN7RA7r4_PULR-oAvTSg/edit?ts=63a5a605
Dr Astghik Voskanyan
We would like to ask for your contribution in the MRC funded project that is developing reporting guidelines for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) protocols and reports using surrogate primary endpoints: the SPIRIT-SURROGATE and CONSORT-SURROGATE extensions.
By taking part in our survey, you will help us to develop guidelines for reporting RCTs with surrogate primary endpoints. The survey will ask for your views on the most important items that should be reported by RCTs reports and protocols using surrogate endpoints.
We are particularly interested in the views of people who:
• have expertise or interest in surrogate endpoints with basic understanding of the concept of surrogacy in RCTs
• are implementers or end users of interventions that use surrogate endpoints (e.g., patient and public representatives, healthcare professionals)
• have expertise and are interested in RCTs reporting and methodology (e.g., researchers journal editors, statisticians, methodologists)
• are interested in the design and reporting of trials using surrogate endpoints (e.g., journal editors, funders, regulators).
You can register your interest to participate using this link: https://forms.office.com/r/1UuDCBU8bc
Many thanks,
Dr Anthony Manyara, Prof Rod Taylor, and Prof Oriana Ciani on behalf of the SPIRIT|CONSORT-SURROGATE Project Team
Dr Rachel Rosovsky is a Haematologist, based at Harvard, leading in the survey of current anticoagulation practice in the management of Covid-19 patients
The survey takes 5-10 min to tell us about if and how anticoagulation practice has changed given the publication of the multiplatform, RAPID, and HEP-Covid trials: https://redcap.partners.org/redcap/surveys/?s=HFJJ38THP4
The UK CLL forum would like clinicians to complete their CLL Covid-19 survey.
The Academic Section of Vascular Surgery at Imperial College London are conducting a survey evaluating the impact of the Acute Venous Thrombosis: Thrombus Removal with Adjunctive Catheter-Directed Thrombolysis (ATTRACT) Trial on clinical practice.
They would be grateful if you could spare 3 to 5 minutes to share your experience.
Please direct any questions or comments regarding the questionnaire to Aleksandra Staniszewska at [email protected].
Nurses and clinicians are sought for a study exploring how Hodgkin lymphoma patients would make a decision about lung cancer screening and how healthcare professionals can best support them.
The study involves a telephone interview using Zoom which will last around 20 minutes. Compensation will be offered for your time.
For more information or to express an interest, email [email protected].
The NCRI MDS subgroup, UK MDS Forum and MDS UK patient support group have created a survey for MDS and AML patients and caregivers to complete regarding their management during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The aim of this is to understand more about patients’ perspectives of the changes to their care that took place since the pandemic and also to gain some insight into their own experiences of COVID-19 if applicable.
They hope to use the data to better inform them about any beneficial changes to practice that they can take forward to improve the care of MDS and AML patients and also to understand what barriers and difficulties patients came across during this period.
Please pass this link on to your patients and their caregivers so that they can have their say: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/MDSUKCovid19surveyCL
Blood Cancer UK has funded a study to better understand the emotional and psychological support provided to people who have been diagnosed with blood cancer across England.
The research is being carried out by Oxford Brookes University and Oxford University researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts.
The survey is focused on support within adult blood cancer services and excludes children, teenagers and young adults as these groups already have nationally commissioned psychological support services. We want to find out about your current practice, experiences and views.
The findings will be used to influence policy and practice in the future, and will help us to improve the level of emotional and psychological support for people with blood cancer.
Please share the details of this research project with relevant colleagues working in England and adult blood cancer services only.
About HaemSTAR
HaemSTAR is a national network of haematology registrars aiming to promote and create research in non-malignant haematology. One of the areas we promote is audit.
There is often difficulty in recruiting patients to audits for non-malignant disease, either due to reduced investment into projects relative to malignant haematology audits, or because of the rarity of conditions such as TTP.
The aim of HaemSTAR is to use a central committee to either create non-malignant audits, or to promote audits started in trusts around the country to enhance uptake.
The committee then disseminate information about these studies to regional leads in each training region. These regional leads then disseminate that information to their registrar colleagues. This allows potentially for every haematology registrar nationally, and subsequently their consultants, to be informed about these projects, hugely increasing potential project recruitment.
We have very positive data from the projects we have completed so far, including an audit of IVIG use in ITP which accrued 975 patients in 39 centres nationally.
The benefits for those who registrars or consultants who contribute is that audit proformas and registration information for audit departments are prepared for them, their data is analysed for them and that they can achieve ‘citable collaborator’ status if they have given sufficient contribution on any papers published from those audits.
Further information can be found on our website; www.haemstar.org or by contacting [email protected]. This can be useful for consultants in hospitals with no registrar presence so they can receive our monthly Newsletter which explains our current projects.
