Special Interest Group
Created for Pediatric BMT

A section for pediatric blood and marrow transplantation has been created within ASBMT.  The new special interest group (SIG) was approved by the Board of Directors in February and a charter issued in May.

In announcing the new section, ASBMT President Robert Negrin said, “The purpose is to provide an international forum for academic interaction between health care providers with an interest in hematopoietic cell transplantation in children and adolescents.”  Membership is open to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, ethicists, clinical research associates and others who have a particular interest in pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

The special interest group will be led by a Coordinating Committee chaired by Morton Cowan, MD, of the UCSF Children’s Hospital, San Francisco.  Other members of the initial committee are:

• Steven Grupp, MD, PhD – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (vice chair)
• Amanda Termuhlen, MD – Columbia Children’s Hospital, Ohio
• Kirk Schultz, MD – British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital, Vancouver
• Vicki Fisher, RN, MSN, CPNP – University Hospitals Health System, Cleveland

Dr. Cowan said that the pediatric SIG will focus first on the development of a series of presentations at the 2007 BMT Tandem Meetings next February in Keystone.  These will complement presentations pertaining to pediatrics in the main plenary and concurrent scientific sessions and workshops.  Abstracts submitted on pediatric topics will be considered for the SIG program.

“Our objective is to promote the exchange of information, ideas and research advances in blood and marrow transplantation for diseases in children and adolescents,” Dr. Cowan said.  “By creating a new focal point for pediatric BMT, we think we can increase the number of pediatric physicians, nurses and other health care providers within the society, as well as grow the number of these professionals attending the annual meeting.”

When ASBMT members renew their annual memberships, they will have an opportunity to sign up for membership in the SIG at no additional dues cost.

Pediatric BMT is the society’s second special interest group.  A SIG for BMT administrative directors was formed in 1999.