The Perioperative Patient Blood Management (P-PBM) Working Group outlines five activities that advanced P-PBM at the 18th World Congress of Anaesthesiologists in Singapore 2024
By the P-PBM Working Group
The WFSA P-PBM working group consists of the P-PBM Steering Group (co-chaired by Daniela Filipescu and Fredy Ariza) and 25 PBM experts from 19 different countries.
Left: Jolene Moore (left), WFSA P-PBM lead
Right: Jens Meier, collaborator in the P-PBM working group
1. Ceremonial signing of the Santa Cruz Declaration: a Global PBM Consensus
Over the past year, WFSA has been leading innovative work in the field of PBM by encouraging Member Societies to endorse the Santa Cruz Declaration, a call to highlight the impact of iron deficiency, anaemia, bleeding, and coagulation disorders on both national public health services and the communities they serve.
A milestone ceremonial signing event at the WFSA Hub at WCA2024 was led by WFSA’s new President Daniela Filipescu and President Elect Carolina Haylock Loor, illustrating the Federation’s commitment to supporting and promoting the initiation of PBM programmes across all Member Societies.
Global PBM experts Axel Hofmann, Jens Meier, and Aryeh Shander were also present, demonstrating their support for the initiative and explaining to attendees why a PBM-based culture is the “new normal” in global healthcare.
2. First in-person collaborators meeting
The first in-person P-PBM collaborators meeting to discuss development of the new WFSA P-PBM course was co-chaired by Fredy Ariza, Daniela Filipescu and Jolene Moore.
WFSA will launch a standalone P-PBM multi-professional training package, a major new offering and the first to be developed solely under the Federation name. This will take the form of a two-day facilitator course for anaesthesiologists, followed by a one-day end-user course for multidisciplinary participants.
The meeting in Singapore showcased current progress on the course and allowed the working group to share achievements, expectations and concerns. The group also outlined timelines for achieving project goals, alongside suggestions and recommendations for conducting the first pilots of the course in 2025.
Right: Fredy Ariza discussing the progress of the WFSA P-PBM course
3. Hands-on demonstration of the P-PBM Course
The first 90-min taster session of the P-PBM course took place with two topics piloted to 20 participants.
Led by experts and WFSA collaborators Susan Goobie (USA), Tae-yop Kim (South Korea), and Kai Zacharowski (Germany) alongside WFSA P-PBM leads Fredy Ariza (Colombia) and Jolene Moore (UK), participants were guided through aspects of the new training and offered hands-on support.
The session featured topic 1b of the course, a captivating role-playing game which demonstrates a multidisciplinary approach (‘PBM is a multi-professional program with multiple wins’) and topic 1d, which focuses on PBM as a continuum of perioperative patient-centered care.
High levels of participant satisfaction underscored course effectiveness, reflecting robust engagement and a promising outlook for future collaboration. Following this successful session, the plans are to pilot course materials in three regions around the world before WCA2026, with the first pilot to take place in January 2025.
4. Scientific Session – Perioperative Patient Blood Management: A WFSA Call for Action
A scientific session with 200 attendees was presented by Fredy Ariza, Daniela Filipescu, Carolina Haylock Loor, Axel Hofmann, Jens Meier, Aryeh Shander and Wayne Morriss. The session highlighted numerous aspects of PBM, including a formal presentation of the Santa Cruz Declaration.
The session reaffirmed the paradigm shift introduced by the new definition of PBM, and emphasised the need to truly understand its components. WFSA also reiterated a commitment to P-PBM programme implementation, and the development of educational PBM tools.
Left: Carolina Haylock Loor, Daniela Filipescu and Wayne Morriss
Right: Aryeh Shander, Axel Hofmann, Fredy Ariza, Jens Meier, Carolina Haylock Loor, Daniela Filipescu and Wayne Morriss
5. Pop-up sessions at the WFSA Hub
PBM champions from around the world were also invited to deliver short talks and masterclasses on P-PBM-related subjects at the WFSA Hub in the Global Anaesthesia Village. Talks were given by Erlinda Oracion (Philippines) who focused her session on preoperative anaemia, Orawan Pongraweewen (Thailand) who discussed perioperative haemostasis management and Teresa Skelton (Canada), who commented on transfusion medicine education and safety.
The sessions was a great opportunity for experts to engage with a global audience on the practical implementation of PBM during the perioperative period. Attendees actively engaged with the speakers, shared experiences and networked for future projects.
More Resources
- What is Patient Blood Management & why is it so important?
- Endorsing the Santa Cruz Declaration: Strengthening Patient Blood Management Globally
- 19th World Congress of Anaesthesiologists 2026
Title photo: participants in the P-PBM training session at WCA, and some of the P-PBM working group
