Dear Colleagues

During 2015, the European Society for Hemapheresis has been working in several activities which are explained following. One of the actions has been to modify the current web of the Society which, although for many years has meet the needs of ESFH, has to be update according the current standards of hand-held devices and security. It is expected that the change will be carried out during 2016.

 A course of Train the Trainer in Apheresis for Nurses was held in Vienna (Austria) between the 5th and 6th of February of 2015 organized by the ESFH and coordinated by the Past-President, Dr. Hans Vrielink. The course dealt with the different aspects of the apheresis procedures from basic knowledge such as hematology physiology or different types of calculations to specific characteristics of exchange procedures or pediatric apheresis. The course had 14 attendees coming from around Europe (Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands) and USA.

ESFH decided that since in 2016 will be held the XVI WAA /French Society for Hemapheresis in Paris, the Society will not organize the bi-annual meeting that was supposed to be organized in 2016 to avoid duplicities and competition for resources which are every year more and more limited. However ESFH will participate in the organization of Paris meeting and will award a prize to the best poster presentation. ESFH has just learnt and is proud to announce that Prof. Dr. Paul Hoecker, the secretary of the Society, will receive the WAA Cohn de Laval award as recognition of his long standing dedication and commitment to the field of the apheresis.

 For 2018, ESFH has received a bid from Dr. Nelly Carpio of La Fe University Hospital from Valencia, Spain, to organize there the ESFH international meeting jointly with the annual meeting of the Spanish Society of Blood Transfusion and Cellular Therapy. The bid was approved by the Board of Directors of ESFH and now is awaiting the approval of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Society.

Miguel Lozano, MD, PhD
President of ESFH