Chandigarh/ PGIMER Hematology Department Shines at HEMATOCON 2024

Nagpur / Chandigarh : The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, celebrated an impressive win at HEMATOCON 2024, held at Nagpur. PGIMER clinched several awards, showcasing their expertise and innovation in hematology, particularly in developing novel, AI-powered tools for diagnosing and analyzing blood disorders.

Dr. Hem Sunder Thirumurthy (Junior Resident, Pathology) received the Best Oral Presentation award in the Benign Hematology category for his work on BAMBo, an open-source dataset and AI algorithm designed to assess cellularity in bone marrow biopsies. This project provides a vital tool for pathologists and researchers, offering a scalable solution for more precise diagnosis. In the Malignant Hematology category, Dr. Shambhavi Jha (Junior Resident, Pathology) secured second place in the oral presentation category for BoMBR, an AI-based algorithm and dataset created to detect and grade reticulin fibrosis in bone marrow biopsies of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). Both BaMBo and BoMBR represent joint research initiatives by faculty from PGIMER (Dr. Praveen Sharma and Dr. Pulkit Rastogi) and IIT Ropar (Dr. Sukrit Gupta), highlighting the innovative potential of these homegrown projects.

Additionally, Dr. Shambhavi Jha was awarded the second prize in the poster presentation competition for rare molecular subtypes of blood cancer. The PGIMER junior residents’ quiz team—Dr. Venkat Shashidhar (Pathology), Dr. Nehar Rajapurkar (Medicine), and Dr. Sai Charan (Pediatrics) secured first runner-up in the National Hematology Quiz.

PGIMER’s achievements at HEMATOCON 2024 underscore the institute’s commitment to advancing hematology through research and collaboration, marking a proud moment for the institution and the nation.