The year 2022 ended on a real high for the British Lymphology Society (BLS)! The conference in October got the BLS Community back together again, excited to be working on new projects, addressing key issues and with exciting plans for the year ahead, including more opportunities for members. A great awards ceremony and a really positive annual general meeting in November was the icing on the cake.
BLS Conference 2022: highlights
The conference was held in two parts, enabling delegates to build their own programme, based on their individual learning needs and interests.
Informal element
In the first, more informal element, the focus was on networking and collaborating, and everyone made the most of the opportunities throughout the day, which revolved around workshops. A series of workshops repeated over the day maximised the opportunities to be actively involved in sharing experiences and generating ideas that we, as a society, may take forward. It also meant lots of moving about and stimulation of the lymphatic drainage channels, as well as the mind!
We are really grateful to the workshop facilitators who worked really hard, and they really appreciated the contributions so many delegates made. The enthusiasm with which some delegates volunteered to help develop some projects and ideas for potential resources to support better lymphoedema care, was remarkable. More on this later.
Debate
The informal day got off to a great start with a lively, sometimes boisterous, debate on what has, at times, been a contentious issue in lymphoedema treatment-Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD). It was fun but with serious intentions to stimulate thinking on the place of MLD as part of lymphoedema treatment. The motion debated was ‘Manual Lymphatic Drainage should be offered as an essential component of lymphoedema management’. Audience polls were taken before and after the debate, along with surveys of the extent of use of MLD by practitioners who were present at the conference. A team of three spoke for the motion and three against, with the added challenge that the stance of individuals in the debate may not have reflected their own points of view. It was ably chaired by Professor Julie Green from Keele University, who has no background in lymphoedema care. The tone was set for the debate by the late entry of Professor Neil Piller, a well-know international figure in lymphoedema, who had been having a lovely, relaxing massage! Professor Piller, Director, Lymphoedema Clinical Research Unit, Flinders Medical Centre, Australia, led the team supporting the motion (Rebecca Elwell, Macmillan Lymphoedema Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Royal Stoke University Hospital/BLS Trustee; Professor Dominic Furniss, Professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Oxford). The opposing team was led by another well-know international practitioner and researcher in lymphoedema, Professor Karin Johansson, Lund University Sweden, President of The Swedish Society of Lymphology, who was supported by Gary Cooper-Stanton, University of Birmingham/BLS Scientific Committee Member; and Professor Vaughan Keeley, University Hospital of Derby and Burton NHS.
The arguments presented by both teams were robust, slick and challenging as both teams had researched the topic well and prepared thoroughly. Although the audience polls both before and after the debate indicated greater support for the motion, the margin was substantially narrowed in the post-debate poll. So, very well done to all the debaters.
Formal, scientific conference component
Each of our international speakers made key presentations. Professor Piller addressed the issue of supporting self-management. Professor Johansson presented very recent results on a study of early intervention with compression garments in preventing progression of lymphoedema in breast cancer patients with mild arm lymphoedema. This has now been published in Acta Oncolgica.
There were 14 presentations of submitted abstracts and several updates from groups within or in collaboration with BLS. The BLS Children's Lymphoedema Specialist Interest Group showed a great video taken at the Lymphaletics Event in September. Presentations were also made by Legs Matter, the National Wound Care Strategy Group and the new International Lipoedema Association. It was really exciting to share so many inspiring initiatives and progress.
Partnership with Mark Allen Group
We are delighted to work in partnership with the Mark Allen Group on several initiatives. The publishing group kindly sponsored awards for oral and poster presentations at the BLS Conference and also support a special Case Study Competition. We were proud to once again be involved in judging their British Journal of Nursing Chronic Oedema Nurse of the Year Awards. In the Awards Ceremony, all the entries were outstanding and would have been very worthy winners! The partnership also involves the BLS in supporting and contributing to their National Lymphoedema Conference, which, as always, was hugely successful.
A peek ahead to #BLS2023
The BLS Conference has moved to a new and exciting venue for 2023—Chester Racecourse! We hope you can join us. If you are a full member, there are a substantial number of funded places available through our Education Grant Scheme, but you will need to book early. If you are not awarded a grant, you can still save £100 on your registration if you are a member.
Professor Stanley Rockson of Stanford University will be our international keynote speaker. His virtual presentation and interview at our 2021 conference was a great success, so we are thrilled that we will have this opportunity to see him in person this year. He will be delivering two presentations. In one of these, he will be reporting on the progress of an exciting study of a new drug treatment for lymphoedema.
Hope to see many of you there!
Planned outputs and initiatives
Each of the workshops identified the need to take ideas forward. Several delegates volunteered to support projects to address the issues identified and other planned work. Some of this work has already begun. The outputs will either be launched at the BLS Conference 2023 or the progress reported. Expected outputs include:
- BLS Position Document on Manual Lymphatic Drainage
- Patient resource for use by practitioners
- Lower limb mobility assessment tool
- Document on Management of Lymphoedema Services and guidance on Clinical Practice.
These are over and above existing work planned for 2023, which includes a revised guidance document for arterial assessment prior to the application of compression, and initiating work on the new website.
We plan to be at several events over the year to promote lymphoedema and raise awareness. In addition to Lymphoedema Awareness Week, we are thrilled to be involved with the International Lymphoedema Framework organisation in planning the scientific programme for the conference in Nottingham in June. There will be many BLS members presenting at the conference and we will also have a stand there. So come and see us if you are lucky enough to be there. If you are a BLS Member you can claim a discount of 10% on your registration fee.
As part of the Legs Matter Coalition, we will be fully supporting Legs Matter Week on 12-16th June. Please join us in raising awareness of the need for better leg and foot care.
Lymphoedema Awareness Week
At the time of writing, Lymphoedema Awareness Week is imminent and we have a fantastic programme of webinars, to which we have had an outstanding response from a global audience. We hope many of you will have registered and been able to see these. If not, they will be made available later in the year. If you are registered as a Friend of BLS (no cost) we will notify you when these are available.