Since its launch, the WFH Twinning Program has facilitated 275 partnerships—each focused on building capacity, improving care, and expanding access to diagnosis and treatment. These partnerships have led to improved diagnosis and clinical expertise, increased government engagement, and more effective advocacy. There are two types of twinning programs: Hemophilia Treatment Centre (HTC) Twinning and Hemophilia Organization Twinning (HOT). Both work by pairing an emerging facility or organization with an established one to share learnings.
When [people who have a child with hemophilia see] someone coming from a developed country is visiting them, I think it touches people’s hearts… we have people who are caring for us, who are ready to support our programs.
—Agnes Kisakye, Executive Secretary, Haemophilia Foundation of Uganda
By connecting healthcare professionals and people living with bleeding disorders across borders, the program fosters a sense of global unity and mutual learning. Beatrice Nolan, MD, Pediatric Hematology Consultant, Children’s Health Ireland, shared how working with an HTC in Amman, Jordan, reshaped her own team’s perspective on resourcefulness and patient care. Meanwhile, virtual and in-person exchanges with the HTC have helped identify critical treatment gaps—like introducing testing that made it possible to diagnose inhibitors in two boys with hemophilia B—and develop responsive care plans. Ian Winburn, Global Chief Medical Affairs Officer, Pfizer Specialty Care, says, “[Twinning] looks to balance inequities that we see in healthcare by bringing [together the] experience of others and sharing that in a sense of community.”
Leaders such as Dawn Rotellini, WFH Board Member and Organization Twinning Committee Chair, emphasize that twinning is about meeting partners where they are, not prescribing solutions. In the same vein, Irish Haemophilia Society CEO Brian O’Mahony says, “What the WFH Twinning Program does is show people that [providing care] is not the WFH’s job, it’s all of our job.”
To find out more about the WFH Twinning Program, click here.
The WFH Twinning Program has been exclusively supported by Pfizer since its inception.