On March 27th 2015 the first German Patient Blood Management Symposium was held in conjunction with the annual German PBM network meeting. The symposium was organised jointly by the Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy of the University Hospital Frankfurt and the German Red Cross Blood Donor Service Baden-Wuerttemberg-Hessen. Important steps on how to implement PBM successfully were explained to the 350 attendees by national as well as international experts. Each presentation was followed by a fruitful discussion.
Additional to presentations and discussions, the top three spots of an idea contest were awarded prices sponsored by the Christoph Lohfert Stiftung. We received numerous great ideas on how to further improve Patient Blood Management and picking the top spots was tricky task.
Parallel to the symposium, the German Red Cross Blood Donor Service Baden-Wuerttemberg-Hessen carried out a well-received blood donation event.