CME Therapeutic Apheresis: Current Practices and Advancement, India 2022 July

The virtual CME titled "Therapeutic apheresis: current practices and advancement" was conducted on July 15, 2022. This program was open to all cadre of staff (doctors, technicians, nurses) working for a blood centre across India to educate them on therapeutic apheresis (TA). 

First and foremost, I would like to thank the ISBT academy and the ISBT central office for approving academy support for the organization of this educational event. We thank our faculty who presented and chaired sessions for this program. 

Five hundred and twenty-seven (527) participants registered online for this event, and two hundred and sixty-three (263) attended this program. Dr Pratima Murthy (Director, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, Bengaluru) inaugurated this program. Following a welcome note from Dr Vani Santosh, the program was opened with presentations of the esteemed speakers of the first session. 

Prof. Ratti Ram Sharma presented "Development of human resource and curriculum for therapeutic apheresis facility". He had given a roadmap for the development of human resource for the TA facility in India. Dr Gopal Patidar presented "Establishment and Journey of therapeutic apheresis in India", followed by Dr C. Shivaram, who presented recent advancements in photopheresis and lipoprotein apheresis. 

The second session started with the presentation of Dr M Netravathi, who shared her two-decade experience of therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) for treating the neurological disorder. She nicely presented TPE's utility for treating immune-mediated neurological diseases in resource constraint settings like India. Dr Vijay Kumawat presented evidence-based changing practices of TPE at NIMHANS in the last two decades, followed by the presentation of Dr Parmatma Prasad Tripathi, who presented technical challenges of TPE during pregnancy with neurological disorders and shared experience at NIMHANS for treating such patients.

There were four speakers for the final afternoon session. Dr Shamee Shastry presented a multidisciplinary approach for TA in solid organ transplantation and discussed practices at her institute. Dr Ankit Mathur presented quality aspects and technical challenges for peripheral blood stem cell collection, including donor selection, laboratory investigation, counselling, and bone marrow registry. Dr Satyam Arora presented his experiences of TA among the pediatric population. He shared technical challenges and resolutions for this special population. At the end of the last session, Dr Abhishekh B. shared granulocyte and donor lymphocyte infusions. The CME ended with a vote of thanks by Dr Vijay Kumawat

Participants well received the program. More than 90% of participants have rated 5 (excellent) or 4 (very good) for scientific content, speakers' knowledge and presentation content, duration, and impact to change their current practices. The participants also rated 5 or 4 grades for online vendor support, web portal for telecast and registration. 
 
This reported is authored by Vijay Kumawat.