Transforming transfusion research

27 Oct 2025

This symposium was recorded on October 27, 2025, during the 36th Regional Congress of the ISBT in Perth.

The session included the following talks:

1. Erica Wood: Making every drop count: Building a transfusion research team to improve blood use and outcomes
2. Cynthia So-Osman: How do you analyze the effect of red blood cell transfusion on clinical outcome?
3. Adam Irving: Value for money matters: Health economic evidence in transfusion research

Moderators: Gwen Clarke, Tina Noutsos

Did you know? You can jump to any presentation by clicking the “Chapters” icon (three horizontal lines) within the video player.

Find below the complete congress programme (pdf) and the link to the Perth congress abstracts, which were published in Vox Sanguinis.

Perth programme book

Perth abstract book

The Speakers

Erica Wood

Professor, Transfusion Medicine Specialist, Transfusion Research Unit, Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Erica Wood

Professor, Transfusion Medicine Specialist, Transfusion Research Unit, Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Erica Wood is a former ISBT Board member and a member of ISBT Working Parties for clinical transfusion, haemovigilance, and transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases. From 2010-2014 she was ISBT regional director for the Western Pacific region and ISBT Past President from 2022-2024. Erica is head of the Transfusion Research Unit in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She is a consultant haematologist at Monash Health and holds an honorary appointment at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Erica is president of the International Haemovigilance Network (IHN), past-president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion (ANZSBT), and a member of the World Health Organization Expert Advisory Panel in Transfusion Medicine. Erica has served as Chief Examiner (Haematology) for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and chair of the Joint Specialist Advisory Committee in Haematology.

She is a member of the Victorian Blood Matters program advisory committee and the expert group of its Serious Transfusion Incident Reporting (STIR) haemovigilance program. In 2013, Erica was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to support her practice and research in patient blood management.

Twitter:: @erica_m_wood

Cynthia So-Osman

ISBT Vice President, Clinical Consultant in Transfusion Medicine, Sanquin Blood Supply, The Netherlands

Cynthia So-Osman

ISBT Vice President, Clinical Consultant in Transfusion Medicine, Sanquin Blood Supply, The Netherlands

ISBT Vice President (2024-2028)

Cynthia So-Osman finalized her specialism in Internal Medicine, with a subspecialty training in Haematology (2000) and in Transfusion Medicine (2002). She obtained a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Clinical Epidemiology (2008) and obtained her PhD with a thesis titled: “Patient Blood Management in Elective Orthopaedic Surgery” in 2012.

Since 2002 she is a Clinical Consultant in Transfusion Medicine at Sanquin Blood Bank at the Dept. of Transfusion Medicine, NL, and she actively participates in Patient Blood Management and COVID-19 related studies. As a Haematology Consultant, she works at Erasmus University Hospital, Rotterdam, NL. She is the past chair of the ISBT Clinical Transfusion Working Party, she is a member of the International Collaborative on Transfusion Medicine Guidelines (ICTMG) and a member of the BEST Collaborative.

Adam Irving

Senior Research Fellow , Monash University

Adam Irving

Senior Research Fellow , Monash University

Dr Adam Irving is a health economist at Monash University's Centre for Health Economics and Transfusion Research Unit. He specialises in economic evaluations of interventions in blood disorders and transfusion medicine

The Moderators

Tina Noutsos

Senior Research Fellow, Menzies School of Health Research

Tina Noutsos

Senior Research Fellow, Menzies School of Health Research

Dr Tina Noutsos is a Senior Specialist Haematologist with NT Health, Head of Global and Tropical Health/Senior Research Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, and adjunct Associate Professor with Flinders University's College of Medicine and Public Health.

Tina is a clinical and laboratory Consultant Haematologist with dual FRACP and FRCPA fellowships. She is active in both clinical and laboratory practice at the Royal Darwin Hospital, Department of Health, NT Government. Tina is the NT lead for transfusion, a Councillor (Board Company Director) of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion, and an Expert Group Member of the Serious Transfusion Incident Reporting (STIR) Group of the Blood Matters program, Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria.

Gwen Clarke

ISBT Secretary General, Chair of the Vox SC; Clinical Professor, University of Alberta, Canada, Edmonton, Canada

Gwen Clarke

ISBT Secretary General, Chair of the Vox SC; Clinical Professor, University of Alberta, Canada, Edmonton, Canada

Secretary General (2018-2026)

ISBT Secretary General, Chair of the Vox SC; Clinical Professor, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Gwen Clarke is a physician with training at the University of Alberta and at Emory University. She has clinical and research interests in perinatal immunohematology and experience as a hospital transfusion medicine physician and with the Canadian blood supplier. Her current role with Canadian Blood services includes medical leadership for perinatal and immunohematology reference laboratories, consultation in donor testing and for the Rare Blood Program. Gwen is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Alberta. She is a former program director for residency training in Hematopathology and an examiner for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Gwen has recently completed a term as president of the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine.

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