Welcome to the Dutch Hematology Congress
21 January – 23 January 2026
22 January Nursing Symposium
Papendal – Arnhem – The Netherlands
It is our great pleasure to invite you to join us at the 18th Dutch Hematology Congress. This year, the event will be organized, like last year, without any sponsorship. It will be organized by and for Hematological Netherlands.
The reason for this change
For years, the results of the DHC evaluation have shown that both participants and sponsors are struggling with the set-up of the sponsorship. In recent years, changes have been made in the sponsor booths and the possibilities of interaction, but unfortunately, the situation remained challenging for a large number of participants and sponsors. Also, at the NVvH General Meeting of Members, the set-up of sponsorship has been questioned. For this reason, the organization has decided, to organize the Dutch Hematology congress without sponsorship.
Evaluation results 17 DHC
The evaluation results showed that the marjority of all participants thought the sponsorless conference was an improvement or had no opinon about it. In view of the positive results, we intend to continue the new concept.
How will this be designed?
The organization aims to organize a conference by and for the Dutch Hematological Society, in which the educational and social character of the DHC is maintaiined for all participants. Furthermore, the aim is to offer paricipants even more opportunities for interaction and discussion. To achieve this, we have implemented the following changes:
- The program is evenly divided over the three days (making Friday a full-fledged conference day).
- NVvH committees and HOVON working groups will be actively involved in the implementation of the program.
- There will be opportunities for meetings of committees, working groups, and study sessions.
Changes in funding
The DHC organization believes that it is important to keep the registration fees as low as possible, but also finds it important to maintain the social character with joint activities such as dinner and the social program. The organization decided not to change the rate of researchers and nurses; this will be similar to previous years. For medical specialists the rate will increase but remain in line with other conferences such as the NIV days. Within the DHC foundation, HOVON and NvVH will contribute equally to the additional costs for the organization of a conference without sponsors. This specific financial support is only used for participants who belong to the primary target group of the conference, namely employees of hospitals and research institutions in the field of hematology.
Participants who do not belong to the primary target group
Interested parties who do not belong to the primary target group described above—i.e., those who do not work in hospitals or research institutes—can still participate in the conference. These participants will pay the standard rate, which is a higher rate than the rate for the primary target group, as no financial support from HOVON and NVvH is allocated to cover their portion of the organizational costs.
DHC: Sponsor-Free
A sponsor-free professional conference is unique in the Netherlands. We look forward to the next sponsor-free Dutch Hematology Congress and hope to see you at the 18th DHC!
Stijn Halkes (chair NVvH) en Arnon Kater (chair HOVON)
Suzanne van Dorp (chair program committee), Laura van Hussen-Daenen (vice chair program committee)
Shahira Fazel (chair program committee nursing symposium)
Sabina Kersting, Arnon Kater, Stijn Halkes en Annoek Broers (board stichting DHC)