Professor Martin Kaiser and Dr Matthew Jenner discuss the BSH Good Practice Paper for the diagnosis and initial treatment of transplant-eligible high-risk myeloma patients, published in July 2024.

Professor Guy Pratt discusses the investigation, diagnosis and management of smouldering myeloma. This podcast is based on the British Society for Haematology’s 2024 Good Practice Paper, Diagnosis and management of smouldering myeloma. 

This guidance update from the BSH is focussed primarily on non-surgical invasive procedures, simply termed ‘procedures’ in this document, with the primary objective of giving pragmatic advice where evidence is limited. This guidance also aims to reduce unnecessary laboratory testing, inappropriate use of blood products and unnecessary delays in therapeutic procedures.1 It should be read in conjunction with the Interventional Radiology (IR) procedure bleeding risk guidance produced by the British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR) and the BSH.2 Recommendations are predominantly based on evidence from adult patients and therefore may not be applicable to neonates or very young children.

Since the last version of the BCSH (British Committee for Standards in Haematology) Guidelines for Specification, implementation and management of  Information Technology (IT) in hospital transfusion laboratories was published1 there has been continued development in IT applications for use in transfusion medicine. IT has made a major contribution to blood safety throughout the transfusion chain, and there is increasing use of IT solutions to allow laboratories to meet some of the challenges of the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations (F24) SI 50/2005 (as amended) legislation 2, such as traceability. These guidelines update those published in 2014, to reflect new developments. Further requirements such as the provision of extensively genotyped matched red cell units have also been addressed.