My first day at ISTH 2017
Hello everyone!
I’m really glad to have made it here to Berlin yesterday — I have been counting down to coming to ISTH for weeks, and it’s really cool to finally be here. Living in Hannover, I didn’t have too far to travel, just a short train journey. I was really impressed when I arrived at the venue, Berlin City Cube, at all the people around — I didn’t expect it to be so crowded!

The ISTH 2017 flags were waving in the sun as I went to register and pick up my delegate pack which contained the hefty congress program book. The theme of the ISTH meeting this year is Transcending Scientific Boundaries and I spent my first evening looking through the program book at all the presentations and poster sessions on offer. There are so many sessions that look great and only a limited amount of time so I’ve had to choose which to attend wisely. Being my first congress, it’s been really difficult to pick which sessions to go to — I wish I could go to them all!
The first SSC session on today’s agenda was Factor VIII, IX and rare coagulation disorders Pt 2. I was particularly interested in Dr Guy Young’s (USA) presentation on The difficulties of measuring extended half-life factors in the laboratory. Dr Young spoke about how the one-stage clot assay is often insufficient to measure factor activity due to different PTT-reagents used in the lab. The main learning I took away from the presentation was that we need to begin thinking more about what the PTT-reagents are made from — what kind of activators (like ellagic acid and kaolin etc.), and phospholipids, they contain. He summarised that probably, we have to think about utilising chromogenic assays more in the future. The following presenter, Steven Pipe (USA), spoke about how to establish chromogenic factor IX assays in the lab — which is a problem we are currently trying to solve in my lab back home, so it was really interesting to hear his perspective and insights on this.
The second session of the day was Breaking the scientific walls in the treatment of haemophilia and rare bleeding disorders: from laboratory assays to patient outcomes. Dr Young was presenting again, it was great to hear him talk this time about prolonging factor IX coagulation activity with new products, but we are challenged to monitor them in the lab. However, it’s really exciting to think that we could potentially improve the quality of life of patients with haemophilia by extending the half-life of products, meaning fewer infusions for them due to prolonged factor levels. Last but not least my boss was presenting, Dr Andreas Tiede, on his favourite topic — acquired haemophilia A and how to work towards improving patient outcomes. I believe it’s interesting that haemophilia isn’t just a disease someone is born with, acquired haemophilia could possibly strike anyone and therefore physicians need to be aware that haemophilia can also be an acquired condition too.

The last thing I HAD to do today before heading back for the night was attend the opening ceremony and welcome talks. I didn’t really know what to expect or what I was in for. Following the theme of the congress, we also transcended time with three of the fathers of modern medicine, Professors Koch, Landsteiner and Virchow, who discussed the importance of congress for the ongoing flow of medical knowledge, likening it to a continuous river that is ever expanding. The water theme carried through to a water acrobatics performance before welcoming speeches and awards presentations.
After the ceremony, the drinks reception was held and the exhibit halls were finally opened for us delegates to visit the booths. Walking through the doors into one of the exhibit halls, I was again overwhelmed with the crowds and amazed at the size of the different booths. Looking forward to exploring them properly tomorrow between the sessions!
So Day 1 was a long one, but it’s been so exciting for me — very different to being in the lab and I’m going to make the most of getting to attend such a wide variety of sessions. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to more symposia sessions, also to the presented posters and getting to spend more time getting lost on the booth exhibits.
Dirk
