ISTH 2025
Congress Chronicle
See previous editions of the Congress Chronicle:
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ISTH Congress Chronicle: Now is the time to register and book your hotel
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February 2025
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By: Guy Young, M.D.
ISTH 2025 Congress Chair
Welcome to the February edition of the Congress Chronicle, our bi-monthly newsletter leading up to the ISTH 2025 Congress in Washington, D.C. The previous editions are all available here—I encourage you to have a look at those as they all contain interesting information.
We are just over four months from the Congress, and in this edition, I will discuss some practical aspects that you need to consider now. In addition, I will discuss a new type of session in the program called Special Sessions.
Book your hotel accommodations now
We are expecting a sizeable number of attendees this year, especially since ISTH 2025 is the first fully in-person congress in the U.S. in 16 years. As someone who has been to every ISTH Congress since 2003, I strongly suggest registering early to get the best rates and even more important, book your hotel accommodations now.
Rooms are filling up quickly, and you’ll want to get the best rates and closest proximity to the Congress Center so you don’t end up in a hotel in Maryland or Virginia. 🙄 Seriously, hotel space very close to the venue is limited, and while there are plenty of excellent hotels in Washington, D.C., many will not be walking distance (unless you walk really fast) to the convention center.
There are other great hotel accommodation options near a Metro Station. There is a Metro stop right at the convention center so that will make things easier for you if you are too far to walk to the convention center.
Getting to Washington, D.C.
Now let’s talk about air travel. There are three major airports serving Washington, D.C. which are Reagan National Airport (DCA), Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI).
For those coming from other countries (other than Canada—see below), you will find the most options flying into Dulles (IAD)—there are lots of options for non-stop flights from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia so if you can get a non-stop flight, that is your best option.
To my Australian friends, your best bet is to go to Los Angeles and then to DCA or IAD from there—you’re used to that, I am sure. From Dulles, you can take the Metro into Washington, which is much faster and much cheaper than a taxi or ride share service. Traffic in the morning into Washington can be bad—trust me, having lived in Washington for four years, I know.
If you are flying international and do not have a non-stop option or it is too expensive, connecting in the U.S. will allow you to then fly into Reagan National (DCA) which is much closer to the city and a short (10-20 minute Metro ride) into any part of the city.
There are of course some fights from Asia all the way to New York, Newark and Houston or Dallas, too. For those from the U.S. or Canada (only Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax), you should consider your first option to fly into Reagan National, but you can also fly to Dulles or BWI as well.
There are some international flights into BWI, but this airport is not served by the Metro and is about 35 miles/50 km from the center of Washington, D.C. It will be an expensive taxi or ride share so I do not recommend this option in general, but I will say that for those flying from the U.S., flights into BWI tend to be less expensive than those into Reagan National.
Finally, for all international travelers, please carefully check if you need a visa to enter the U.S. and, if so, whether you can get an electronic visa or if you need a visa that requires a visit to the U.S. consulate in your country. If you do need a visa, you should start working on that right now. This is an ever-changing policy so please review this carefully. The best information can be found at the U.S. State Department website here.
Special Sessions
In addition to the usual Plenary and State-of-the-Art sessions most of you are familiar with, we have decided to add several Special Sessions to the program this year. Special Sessions will cover topics or have formats that don’t quite fit into the above two categories.
ISTH 2025 will offer the following Special Sessions:
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An introduction to and practical aspects of artificial intelligence for the scientist and the clinician. I want to thank Joost Meijers and Aaron Iding of the Annual Congress Planning Committee (ACPC) for putting this session together.
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A case-based bench to bedside session which will utilize a case to explore the science behind the clinical aspects of the case, as well as describe the clinical context. This session was developed by Riitta Lassila, ACPC Clinical Chair and Alisa Wolberg, ACPC Basic Science Chair.
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How do we define cure in gene therapy? A tricky question indeed. This session was developed and will be moderated by Karin Fijnvandraat, the Theme Leader for Inherited Bleeding Disorders.
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The ISTH Hemophilia Guidelines at One Year. This session will discuss the ISTH Guidelines that were published before the ISTH 2024 Congress and will critically appraise the guidelines from two recent publications. One of the guideline authors will also provide their perspective regarding these critiques. This session was put together by Riitta Lassila and yours truly.
More details on the sessions, which are just being finalized now, will be shared on the ISTH 2025 website in February. Check back soon for additional details. The Congress will have two special sessions on hemophilia, as there are no plenaries and only one State-of-the-Art session on hemophilia.
Next, I’m happy to turn it over to Aaron Iding, M.D., who serves as the ACPC Early Career Committee Member. He shares an exciting update on Early Career activities slated for ISTH 2025.
Aaron Iding shares Early Career activities at ISTH 2025
Supporting early career professionals is one of the top priorities of the ISTH.
The ISTH Early Career Committee – comprised of twelve members from around the world –
ensures their voices are heard in policy decisions and spearheads initiatives such as webinars
(available on the ISTH Academy) to benefit emerging professionals.​
For the Congress, we’ve organized three opportunities that should be on everyone’s radar:
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On Saturday, the Congress kicks off with an Early Career Session featuring exciting talks and roundtable discussions about diverse career paths within and outside of academia. Be sure to register!
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Visit the Early Career Lounge throughout the Congress to enjoy a welcoming space to relax and network with your peers. In addition, the Lounge hosts a varied program covering career growth, mentoring and ways to get involved with the ISTH.
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Finally, during the Congress there will be Career Development Sessions and Master Classes. The former focuses on essential skills in your career, while the latter provides engagement with cutting-edge research topics.
We hope this diverse program will enhance your Congress experience. If you see us around (very likely at the Early Career Lounge!), don’t hesitate to say hello – we’re always open to feedback on how we can better support you. See you at the Congress!
Closing remarks from Guy Young
Thank you again to Aaron Iding for sharing those exciting updates.
Finally, most of the world is in mid-winter now, and I hope that you are enjoying it or at least tolerating it. In Los Angeles, we have had an unusually dry (normally this is our rainy season) and catastrophic winter—it has essentially not rained in 10 months.
I am sure you all know that we had a series of devastating fires that completely destroyed several communities surrounding Los Angeles. Angelenos (as we are called) have banded together to help those in need including (unfortunately) several of my team members, one of whom lost her home and all her possessions, and others who had to evacuate and had significant damage to their homes.
As an eternal optimist, I believe that my team members, while suffering now (as is the whole city) will come out of this stronger, and I am truly proud of how my team has stepped up to help those in need with a place to stay, a car, lots of necessities and financial support.
ISTH pop quiz
1. The Winter Olympics are held every four years in February. We are just about one year away from the next Winter Olympics in 2026. Where will it be held?
A. Sapporo, Japan
B. Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy
C. Grenoble/Chamonix, France
D. Calgary/Banff, Canada
2. I can’t resist to have a question about music…again. Given it is now winter (for most of us), the following musical acts with names incorporating themes of winter are all real except for one. Which of these is not a real band?
A. Snow Patrol
B. Icehouse
C Alpine Shadows
D. Arctic Monkeys
3. Washington, D.C. is served by three major airports. Which of the following major cities is NOT served by at least three major airports?
A. New York
B. Los Angeles
C. London
D. Tokyo
Answer key:
1: Answer: B. The 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Milan, Italy with various events such as downhill and Nordic skiing being held in the Italian Alps though not all will be held in Cortina.
2: Answer: C. While Alpine Shadows sounds like a pretty cool name for a band, I made that one up. Snow Patrol are from Dundee, Scotland with their most well-known song being Chasing Cars. Icehouse are an Australian band from Sydney and their most popular song is Great Southern Land. Artic Monkeys are from Sheffield, United Kingdom and their best known song is Do I Wanna Know.
3. Answer: D. Depending on how you want to count them, New York is served by three very large airports [John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Newark International Airport (EWR) which though is in New Jersey is actually the closest to Manhattan, and La Guardia Airport (LGA) which is a large domestic airport] but there are also two smaller but also busy airports in the suburbs which are Westchester County Airport (HPN) north of Manhattan and Islip Airport (ISP) on Long Island. Los Angeles has one very large international airport (LAX) and several smaller, domestic airports all of which are quite busy in Burbank (BUR), Orange County (SNA), Long Beach (LGB) and Ontario (ONT). London has several international airports, one to the west of the city center which is the largest one in London Heathrow (LHR), one to the south in London Gatwick (LGW) and one to the east which is much smaller and serves only short haul flights, London City (LCY). Further out of London are Luton (LTN), Stansted (STN) and Southend (SEN), most of which serve shorter routes with many budget airlines serving those airports. Tokyo, as big of a city as it is, only has two airports, one close to downtown which is Tokyo Haneda (HND) and one further out of the city, Tokyo Narita (NRT).
