Effective thalassemia prevention with superior resolution haemoglobin analysis

Abstract

Thalassemia remains to date a major health problem with a huge number of sufferers and carriers in many Asia Pacific and South Asia countries within the thalassemia belt. Poor health-related quality of life of thalassemia patients negatively impacts the mental, social and financial aspects of family caregivers. Mortality and sustainable patient care is further threatened by recent unprecedented pandemic period constraints, worsening long standing blood transfusion supply issues. This presses for the ever-urgent preventive thalassemia screening need to relieve healthcare and societal burden. Rapid and accurate thalassemia diagnosis can be further challenged by heterogeneity and combination of haemoglobinopathies within a population. In this webinar, world renowned haematologist and thalassemia expert Professor Emeritus Suthat Fucharoen will share his expertise in complex haemoglobinopathy diagnosis with superior resolution haemoglobin analysis to guide the haemoglobin testing community towards a more effective practice.

Speaker Biography

Professor Emeritus Suthat Fucharoen, MD is a world-renowned haematologist and clinician researcher who had greatly impacted the field of Thalassemia and haemoglobinopathies. His clinical research efforts pioneered innovative foetal abnormality diagnostic methodologies that were successfully implemented for national thalassemia prevention programs, enabled development of novel treatments that substantially improved patient outcomes and generated numerous research insights on the genetic basis of thalassemia disease severity. To date, he had published more than 400 authored or co-authored articles in peer-reviewed journals. Prof Suthat’s scientific leadership had tremendously inspired and shaped South-east Asia’s healthcare infrastructure in the management of thalassemia and haemoglobinopathy prevalence. As a testimony to his relentless efforts to improve blood disease healthcare, Prof Suthat is a well-recognized and decorated recipient of numerous awards, grants and honours, including The Royal Dusdhi Mala Medal in Science, awarded by H.M, the king of Thailand in 2008, Outstanding Researcher (Medicine), National Research Council of Thailand in 2010 and Berend Houwen Lecture Award, International Society for Laboratory Haematology in 2011, just to name a few. He is currently Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology for Research and Development, Mahidol University Thailand. He received his medical degree from Chiangmai University in 1973 and underwent postgraduate training in both the United States and Japan under prestigious fellowship programs. Prof Suthat actively speaks in medical conferences and is a highly-sought-after speaker who is passionately committed to sharing his expertise with the greater medical community.