The AABB Annual Meeting is quickly approaching, and subject matter experts from New York Blood Center Enterprises (NYBCe) are looking forward to attending the event from October 3 to 5, 2020. This year’s conference will look different than past meetings due to COVID-19, as the events will be entirely virtual. However, there are still plenty of ways to engage with NYBCe’s representatives and other attendees.
NYBCe will have 55 total representatives at this year’s AABB Annual Meeting. These individuals will be participating in many events, including 13 oral abstract sessions and 20 poster presentations.
For example,Eric Senaldi, M.D., will be the program chair for session AM20-36, an oral abstract session focused on COVID-19. This session will discuss the anticipated increase in demand for COVID-19 convalescent plasma and the process for ensuring its availability during the current pandemic. Additional topics of discussion include testing donors for COVID-19 antibodies and the hypercoagulopathy those antibodies cause.
Christine Lomas-Francis of NYBCe’s Immunohematology and Genomics Laboratory will participate in four oral abstract sessions and five poster presentations, including session P-IG-33, “Peri-Operative Transfusion Management during Liver Transplant of a Patient with a Clinically Significant IgG Anti-M.” She will be joined by co-authors and fellow NYBCe representatives Zong Hu, Randall Velliquette, and Connie Westhoff, SBB, Ph.D. as well as Elizabeth F. Stone M.D., Ph.D.; Jayme Sack, M.D.; Andrew Greenwald, M.D.; Amy Ku, M.D., Ph.D.; Tricia Brentjens, M.D.; and Stuart Weisberg, M.D., Ph.D., from Columbia University Medical Center.
These are only a fraction of the sessions NYBCe representatives will be participating in. Visit NYBCe’s website to view the 2020 AABB Session Schedule and the Oral Abstract Schedule.
In addition to the oral abstract sessions and poster presentations, NYBCe representatives will also be speaking in seven Continuing Education (CE) classes, some of which will provide CE credits.
For example, on October 4 from 2:30 to 3:30 PM, Sunitha Vege of NYBCe’s Immunohematology and Genomics Laboratory will be speaking in session AM20-26, “Practical Tales of Red Cell Genotyping: Through the Eyes of the Molecular Biologist, Serologist, and Physician” along with Meghan Delaney DO, MPH, from the Children’s National Health System and Michael Gannett, MLS(ASCP)SBB from the Molecular Lab at OneBlood, Inc. This interactive section will explore the basic concepts and nomenclature in blood group genetics and explain how to apply blood group genotyping to clinical situations.
NYBCe representatives are also participating in five on-demand sessions, which will become available when the AABB Annual Meeting starts on October 3. For example, New York Blood Center’s Lucette Hall, BS, MBA, speaks in session AM20-65, “Are You a Group or a Team?” which explores the key elements and tools needed to maintain a successful team.
Typically at the AABB Annual Meeting, attendees can walk around the exhibit hall, visit a variety of booths, and talk one-on-one with exhibitors. With the event going online, AABB has recreated that experience through its virtual platform. Attendees will be able to browse a virtual exhibit hall and live chat with exhibitors or schedule one-on-one meetings with subject matter experts from not only NYBCe but also other organizations represented at the event.
AABB 2020 will also have a “virtual networking lounge” where attendees can meet with authors, speakers and colleagues. The networking lounge allows attendees to connect to other attendees, including speakers, authors and subject matter experts. NYBCe will have a wide variety of professionals in attendance ranging from NYBCe investigators to those involved with operations and regulatory guidelines.
Over the past few weeks, the organization has also shared additional resources on its website, including an AABB 2019 archive featuring presentations and posters from that year’s conference.
AABB 2020 is just over a week away, but NYBCe still has more materials it plans to share. Additionally, NYBCe will be posting all of its AABB 2020 content as soon as it becomes available. To stay up to date on this content, fill out this form to receive alerts whenever the organization posts new resources. Also, if you haven’t registered for AABB 2020 yet, remember to do.