WFH 2024 World Congress

The World Federation of Hemophilia WFH 2024 World Congress took place in Madrid, Spain on 21-24 April 2024. It brought together more than 3,000 delegates from 135 countries – people with bleeding disorders as well as national member organisations like HFA, health professionals and industry. Congress is an important opportunity to discuss the latest information, debate some of the issues relevant to bleeding disorders and look to the future and was the first fully in-person event for the WFH since the WFH 2018 World Congress in Glasgow, Scotland.

Australia was well-represented at the WFH Congress as speakers, poster presenters and as delegates. In this issue of National Haemophilia we hear reports from delegates about some of the sessions they attended and what messages they took home from the discussions.

Australian Congress delegates

The 2024 WFH World Congress in Madrid and the EAHAD Congress in Frankfurt were attended by a number of specialist Haemophilia Nurses from Australia. The opportunity for nurses to attend the two Congresses came from a number of funding sources. This included funding from Haemophilia Foundation Australia and the Pfizer Nurse Education Award, as well as funding to three nurses from Sanofi; and one nurse self-funded. This funding enabled Australian Nurses to attend the Congresses to learn more about new advances in treatment and care and to bring this back to their local clinical settings. The impact this has on practice change to benefit patients and their families along with the networking opportunities is invaluable.

Gavin Finkelstein at the WFH stand

CONGRESS REFLECTIONS

Australian delegates reflected on their experience at Congress.

This was my first time attending the World Federation of Hemophilia Congress in the beautiful city of Madrid, Spain. It was a truly amazing experience being able to learn and collaborate with the world experts in haemophilia. After attending several different health conferences within my career, it was very inspiring to see the number of people with bleeding disorders involved in the Congress and their input in the future direction of haemophilia management.

Bianca Da Silva, paediatric physiotherapist, John Hunter Children’s Hospital, Newcastle NSW

The World Federation of Haemophilia Congress 2024 kicked off in Madrid, Spain. What a place to get together with people who are interested in the space of haemophilia! Team Australia did us proud with amazing presentations from HFA, nurses and physiotherapists.

Yuhsuan Lin (Yoshi), haemophilia nurse, Royal Adelaide Hospital, SA

Natashia Coco and Suzanne O’Callaghan with the HFA PROBE poster

Congress was such a wonderful opportunity to meet up with my international colleagues face to face, discuss all of the new developments being presented by the experts and come up with some great ways to go forward. And we were all so excited to be with each other in Madrid – it really added some happy energy to the meeting!

Suzanne O’Callaghan, Policy Research and Education Manager, HFA, Melbourne, VIC.

Suzanne O’Callaghan moderating the education strategies poster session with the French and Canadian presenters

Photos: HFA

READ THE REPORTS