Henrik Birgens Fellowship

The Henrik Birgens Fellowship is a five-day advanced training programme offering focused exposure to the comprehensive management of thalassaemia and other haemoglobin disorders in the Nordic countries, where these conditions are considered rare.

Hosted at the Danish Red Blood Cell Centre at Copenhagen University Hospital, a recognized TIF Collaborating Centre, the fellowship provides participants with clinical exposure and academic learning within a multidisciplinary environment aligned with international standards of care. The Centre is a highly specialized unit at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen and represents the largest diagnostic, clinical, and research facility for rare anaemias in the Nordic region. It is dedicated to the diagnosis and management of red blood cell disorders in Denmark and also serves patients from across the Nordic countries, where the prevalence of haemoglobinopathy carriers remains low.

The fellowship is named in honour of Professor Henrik Birgens, founder of the Danish Red Blood Cell Centre at Copenhagen University Hospital. Professor Birgens has devoted his career to the care of patients with haemoglobinopathies and has played a leading role in advancing clinical practice and laboratory diagnostics for these conditions in the Nordic region.

Although haemoglobinopathies, including thalassaemias and sickle cell disease, remain very rare in the Nordic countries, their prevalence is increasing in recent years, largely due to migration from high-prevalence regions such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia,  Africa and South Europe countries with high prevalence in their indigenous populations. As a result, these conditions are increasingly recognized across Europe as an emerging public health concern. Countries such as Denmark, with well-developed healthcare systems, are actively strengthening clinical expertise and service provision through initiatives such as the Nordic Forum for Haemoglobin Disorders, an initiative of TIF, ensuring countries’ support for improved outcomes for affected patients across the Region.