The team was very busy at the American Society of Hematology congress, held in December 2022 in New Orleans. Posters and presentations covered research from the DIAAMOND trial of avatrombopag in aplastic anaemia, and the ASPREE clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) substudy, as well as the Australia/New Zealand and Asia-Pacific Myeloma and Related Diseases Registries, and Lymphoma and Related Diseases Registry participation in the international HoLISTIC Hodgkin disease collaboration.

The RATIONALISE trial, investigating infection prevention in haematology, has opened to patient recruitment at two hospital sites. Read more at rationalisetrial.com.

Wonderful news for the National Transfusion Dataset team, awarded a $2.9 million MRFF grant to expand the scope of data captured in the NTD. Read more in Monash News.

Congratulations to Dr Allison Mo on her research on platelet transfusion practices in myelodysplasia selected for the ANZSBT Presidential Symposium. For the second year in a row, Allison received the ANZSBT-National Blood Authority award for best presentation on patient blood management. Read more at anzsbt.org.au

The TRU team and collaborators were in full action at the annual BLOOD conference in Sydney (September 2022), contributing to 17 abstracts accepted as oral or poster presentations, 2 invited presentations, and hosting investigator meetings for the lymphoma and myeloma registries. It was wonderful to catch up with colleagues from Australia, New Zealand and around the world.

In collaboration with the Australasian Lymphoma Alliance and Lymphoma Australia, Lymphoma and Related Diseases Registry (LaRDR) investigators and students from around Australia and New Zealand met in Sydney on 13 September to share updates on the work of the registry, and plans for the future. The meeting was very well attended and interactive, with in-person and online participation from patients, advocacy groups, clinicians, industry supporters and researchers, and a panel discussion on how patients can partner in lymphoma research.

The Myeloma and Related Diseases Registry (MRDR) held a milestone meeting on 12 September 2022 celebrating 10 years of successful registry activities. Chaired by Prof Joy Ho, a member of the MRDR Steering Committee and MRDR site investigator at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the meeting included updates on important registry progress and the many research activities in Australia and New Zealand, and from the Asia-Pacific MRDR.

Welcome to Dr Lauren Young, who has joined the TRU team managing the MRFF-funded, AAR-based DIAAMOND trial. Lauren holds a PhD from Swinburne University and is an experienced manager of complex clinical trials.

Welcome to Laura Oliver, who will be working on the Asia-Pacific Myeloma and Related Diseases Registry. Laura has qualifications in health science and social work, and substantial healthcare experience having worked in both the public and private sectors.

TRU and the Monash Centre for Health Economics welcomed Steve Nwokeocha, visiting under the TURING scheme from the University of Birmingham, during July-September 2022. Steve performed an analysis of sickle cell data from the Australian Haemoglobinopathy Registry, which will be used for a research dissertation supporting his MSc candidature in Health Policy and Health Economics, and a planned publication.

Congratulations to Erica Wood, who has been awarded the International Haemovigilance Network (IHN) Medal, recognising her service to IHN and to haemovigilance internationally. Erica delivered the opening presentation at the International Haemovigilance Network-Serious Hazards of Transfusion Symposium in Brighton, July 2022.

Congratulations to A/Prof Zoe McQuilten of TRU and Prof Dennis Petrie of the Monash Centre for Health Economics, and their co-investigators, for successful grant applications focussed on improving the use of immunoglobulins. A/Prof McQuilten leads the RATIONAL Platform Trial and Prof Petrie leads the VALUE-Ig study. These studies form part of the immunoglobulin stream of the NHMRC-funded Blood Synergy research program .

Congratulations to the REMAP-CAP team on winning 'Trial of the Year' at the annual Australian Clinical Trials Alliance Awards. A/Prof Zoe McQuilten and Dr Alisa Higgins collected the award on behalf of the REMAP-CAP team at the awards ceremony on 20 May 2022.

Over 100 in-person and online participants enjoyed the Blood Synergy open day on 3 May 2022. Highlights included discussions of national blood sector research priorities, progress on updates of patient blood management guidelines, enabling technologies such as machine learning for transfusion research, and reports from Synergy projects, investigators and students. It was also an opportunity to share the Synergy Research Report.

Dr Thao Le has joined the Transfusion Research Unit and the Blood Synergy team. Dr Le is a Senior Research Fellow and biostatistician with experience in clinical trials, and will contribute to the design and analysis of a wide range of studies across our research program.

The TREATT team was delighted to complete recruitment to the trial in February 2022. We thank all the 616 participants and their families for their valuable participation in the study of the role of tranexamic acid to prevent bleeding in patients with low platelet counts due to haematologic malignancies. More information about TREATT is available at treatt.org

We welcome Sara Carrillo De Albornoz, who has commenced a PhD with the NHMRC Blood Synergy program. Sara is a health economist with qualifications in public health, and experience in health technology assessments. Her research will focus on health economics evaluations of immunoglobulin use for acquired hypogammaglobulinaemia secondary to haematological malignancies such as multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

The Asia-Pacific Myeloma and Related Diseases Registry has reached an important milestone in recruiting its 1,000th participant to the registry in March 2022. Hospitals in Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan are currently recruiting patients, and China is scheduled to start patient recruitment in 2022. We acknowledge the interest and support of all the study participants, the investigators and study coordinators, the Steering Committee and Janssen-Cilag, who fund the APAC MRDR.

A/Prof Zoe McQuilten, Dr James Winearls and colleagues have been successful in securing $3.1m in funding for the Fibrinogen Early In Severe Trauma StudY II through the 2021 MRFF Rare Cancers Rare Diseases and Unmet Need grant call. Read more about FEISTY II here.

Congratulations to A/Prof Eliza Hawkes, who has been awarded a Monash University Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2022. Eliza is a medical oncologist at Austin Health and the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, and Senior Research Fellow and clinical lead for the Lymphoma and Related Diseases Registry at SPHPM.

Congratulations to all participating sites, investigators and staff of the Lymphoma and Related Diseases Registry (LaRDR) on reaching 5000 participants. Monash Health in Melbourne enrolled the 5000^th patient on 12 February 2022. The registry thanks all patients and their families, site teams, industry sponsors and supporters for their ongoing contributions to LaRDR.

The MY-PROMPT-2 investigators, led by Professor Andrew Spencer, have been awarded $1.6m from the MRFF for the "More efficient delivery of high-cost standard-of-care therapies in relapsed multiple myeloma using real-time feedback of patient-reported outcome measures: the MY-PROMPT-2 trial". This builds on the MY-PROMPT pilot study, led by Dr Elizabeth Moore and colleagues. Congratulations to Andrew, Elizabeth and all the investigators.