The Hemophilia Alliance Travel Grant gives recipients the chance at invaluable opportunities for face-to-face dialogue and collaboration with like-minded peers, allowing them to acquire the kind of first-hand knowledge that can only be gleaned from a WFH event.
Rebecca Schaffer is a dentist from Phoenix, Arizona, and an Assistant Professor at the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health (with a teaching focus on treating people with special needs). She attended the WFH Comprehensive Care Summit (CCS) as current North American delegate to the WFH Dental Committee. Schaffer—or “Doctor Rebecca” as she is known to her patients—summed up her experience at the Summit as follows:
I learned a great deal. As a dentist who specializes in orofacial pain, I improved my knowledge of chronic pain treatment, and comorbidities in bleeding disorders that affect a person’s quality of life. I was able to network, talk to other professionals about temporo-mandibular joint issues that affect our patients, reaffirm the importance of oral health in maintaining overall health, and generally improve my ability to care for our patients.
—Rebecca Schaffer, Dentist
In reflecting on her attendance at the Summit, Diane Standish, a social worker from Butler, Pennsylvania, and a member of the WFH Psychosocial Committee, emphasized the important role informal networking can play in the exchange of knowledge:
There were abundant opportunities to network, and since Summit was a smaller event so it was easy to make connections and have many chances to talk to people. I met some new psychosocial staff from various South American countries…the conversations with new international colleagues, and the latest updates on new treatment approaches, will all serve me well as I continue to work with the bleeding disorders community in Western Pennsylvania.
—Diane Standish, social worker
Another recipient who attended and also presented eight workshops and sessions at the Summit—thanks to Hemophilia Alliance funding—was Los Angeles based (and recent NHF Physical Therapist of the year) Cindy Bailey, a member of the WFH Musculoskeletal Committee and a manager at the Los Angeles Lifespan Orthopaedic Hemophilia Treatment Center (HTC) and Physical Therapy. A past Assistant Professor of clinical practice in the departments of biokinesiology and physical therapy at the University of Southern California and Mount St. Mary’s University’s physical therapy doctorate programs, Bailey is regularly invited as a speaker and provider at conferences and events such as the Pan Am Games, several U.S. Olympic teams, and the World Ice Skating Championships.
The WFH USA proudly acknowledges the Hemophilia Alliance’s commitment to advancing the knowledge of U.S.A.-based healthcare professionals in the bleeding disorders community. To learn more about the important work the Hemophilia Alliance is doing, click here.