On April 9, 2014, the CBR hosted the Norman Bethune Symposium, recognizing the self-less contributions to medicine made by Dr. Bethune in Canada, Spain and China in the 1920s and 1930s. The symposium this year, also marked the 10-year celebration of the official formation of the BC provincial programs in hemophilia at St. Paul’s Hospital and BC Children’s Hospital. Dr. Jerry Growe gave us an historical perspective on the growth of this program …. A solid foundation has been laid by superb physicians, and no doubt, major progress will continue.

The day was marked by several stimulating presentations by scientists and clinicians from UBC, Queen’s University, the University of Calgary, the Canadian Blood Services, the University of Toronto, and the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute. Particularly inspiring comments and talks were given by patients, who provided unique insights into their personal experiences, living with hemophilia or with an immune deficiency. All together, these were humbling, insightful and motivating, and all the attendees greatly appreciated their participation.

The day wouldn’t have been complete without the contributions of students and technicians, paramedical and medical personnel who presented all sorts of posters, introduced by shot-gun talks.

We wish to thank all of our sponsors for supporting this symposium: CSL-Behring, Grifols, Bayer Canada, the Canadian Blood Services, Health Canada, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Alexion, Biogen Idec, Pfizer, Roche, New England Biolabs, and the Sheldon Naiman-Linda Vickars Hematology Endowment Fund.

Photos of this symposium can be found on the CBR Facebook page.

A video of the symposium will be available soon. …. Stay tuned to this page.