In recent years, the profile of patients with hemoglobinopathies in Europe has significantly changed due to the steady flow of migrants from Syria, Iraq, and other Middle East countries, in addition to the classical migration from African and Asian countries. For this reason, and due to the recognized public health matter that hemoglobinopathies are in countries like Turkey, Prof. Dr. Duran Canatan from the Turkish Mediterranean Blood Diseases Foundation has been granted with a project Equality Plus.

Equality Plus aims to provide the best appropriate system for education and training of physicians, not experts in hemoglobinopathies, to learn different ways of treating, addressing mainly the issues of thalassemia and cell anemia in migrants living in Turkey, Spain, and Italy. Joan Lluís Vives, collaborator of the Josep Carreras Research Institute in Spain, and Vincenzo De Sanctis of the Casa di Cura Quisisana in Italy will also participate in this project, funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission.