During this year’s annual meeting of the Patient Safety Movement, Prof. Dr. Dr. Kai Zacharowski was awarded the Humanitarian Award 2015 for his efforts regarding the implementation of Patient Blood Management. Joe Kiani, initiator of the Patient Safety Movement, emphasised how important the work of the awardees is to reduce the number of preventable deaths in hospitals. As part of the meeting Prof. Dr. Dr. Zacharowski explained his research to the audience.
The award ceremony was held in the United States of America.
During the same ceremony, the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama and the vice president Joe Biden were honoured for their commitment regarding the implementation of a nationwide hospital network. Additional honourees were senator Barbara Boxer and patient rights activist Alicia Cole. The Patient Safety Movement aims to reduce the number of preventable deaths to zero by 2020.
“I’m very happy, with our research as well as our contribution to this matter is recognised by the Patient Safety Movement in this form”, Prof. Dr. Dr. Kai Zacharowski said after the award ceremony. His consultant, Prof. Dr. Patrick Meybohm, added “In the US we have been granted a platform to show our results, which might initiate a shift of paradigms regarding the recognition of anaemia and its therapy”. The meeting was attended by 250 international experts on medicine and politics, such as president Bill Clinton. The Patient Blood Management working group from Germany was represented by representatives from the four participating university Hospitals (Frankfurt, Bonn, Kiel, Münster). The working group just finished a study evaluating data of more than 129,000 patients.