Welcome

Attention!

Please be informed that a general strike in Belgium has been announced for Thursday 21 February. If you planning to visit the seminar on Thursday then please be aware that public transportation will most likely be affected by the strike, which will increase car traffic across the country. You are also advised to regularly check the website of the airports for flight updates: www.charleroi-airport.com and www.brusselsairport.be.

Word of Welcome from the President of the International Haemovigilance Network

It is an extraordinary honour and a great pleasure for me to invite you to the International Haemovigilance Seminar (IHS) to be held in Brussels from February 20 to 22, 2013.

Located in the heart of Europe, Brussels is not only a European capital but also one of the capitals of the European Community, together with Strasbourg and Luxembourg. In addition it is a thrilling and dynamic city with a large spectrum of attractions: touristic, historical, cultural, gastronomical and gambrinological.

The history of our Network and our Seminars made the decision very easy to bring the IHS to Brussels for its 15th anniversary.

The early days of our organization were pretty much dedicated to formulate and establish a basic concept for haemovigilance, to spread it in Europe and to create a ground for it to grow. With these ambitions the European Haemovigilance Network (EHN) grew from the initial 5 founding countries (the Benelux countries-Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg-, France and Portugal) to some 10 European countries, participating in this network. Together with the core countries and new non-European countries, EHN matured into IHN and this evolution was a logical step.

In the following years EHN/IHN was a strong advocate to expand the scope of haemovigilance beyond transfused recipients: donor vigilance and surveillance of products/processes were fully integrated into the concept and clinical aspects were gaining much in importance.

In the near future, IHN will develop major efforts to further internationalize haemovigilance. The scientific programme of the IHS in Brussels, with its speakers and its topics, will highlight achievements through grown-up haemovigilance systems (often established in European countries) and at the same time will give the opportunity for developing countries to actively participate in the programme and to present the specific aspects and challenges in those countries. This mixture of "old" and "new" will make it interesting and attractive from a scientific point of view.

There could not be a better place for this 15th IHS to take place than Brussels, where history and modern world meet in a unique and fascinating way. With these words in mind I cordially invite you to join us for an exciting event in a thrilling city, promising an outstanding Seminar after a long tradition of 14 successful scientific conferences.

We are welcoming you to Brussels in 2013, please mark your calendars for February 20 to 22,

With my best regards,

Jean-Claude Faber

President of the International Haemovigilance Network