Héma-Québec, in partnership with Canadian Blood Services, hosted a free, virtual international symposium, on April 20, 2023. This one-day symposium focused on the strategies to mitigate the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections following the removal of deferral criteria related to sexual orientation. For the occasion, experts from countries which have moved to a gender-neutral, individualized risk assessment shared their experience, including the steps that were undertaken to document the impact of this paradigm shift. The similarities and differences in eligibility criteria across jurisdictions, and the rationales that were used to justify these criteria, were highlighted.

Our very own Dr. Tan presented at this international symposium. He spoke during the 2nd session. You can watch it here. Presentation time (2:23 - 13:23).