The impact of COVID-19 on academic productivity by female physicians and researchers in transfusion medicine.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have highlighted the disparities in gender equity that exist in different medical specialties. The COVID-19 pandemic has further heightened the inequity faced by female physicians as they are challenged by increasing household and childcare duties in addition to their professional responsibilities. Given these hurdles, fewer women than men have published in various medical disciplines. In this brief report, we wanted to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the academic output of female physicians and researchers in transfusion medicine. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We compared all articles in four transfusion medicine journals published from January 1 to July 31, 2019 with the same time period in 2020. Overall, 1024 articles were reviewed for whether they included women as first or senior authors. RESULTS: Overall, women were first authors in 45.9% (n = 458) of all publications and senior authors in 35% (n = 356) of all publications. There was a statistically significant decrease in the percentage of women as first authors between 2019 (49.1%) and 2020 (42.7%) (p = .04). There was no significant change in the percentage of women as senior authors between 2019 (35.4%) and 2020 (35.5%) (p = 0.99). CONCLUSIONS: Similar to other medical specialties, the COVID-19 pandemic has further increased the disparities faced by female researchers in transfusion medicine as evidenced by a decrease in publications with women as first authors.

European wide survey on allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation practice for myelofibrosis on behalf of the EBMT chronic malignancies working party.

Heterogeneous practices exist across transplant centres regarding assessment prior to allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) for myelofibrosis, post-transplant monitoring and management of relapse. The 'Practice Harmonisation and Guidelines' and Myeloproliferative Neoplasms subcommittees of the Chronic Malignancies Working Party (CMWP) of the EBMT generated an electronic survey proposal to investigate approaches to the above aspects of myelofibrosis allo-HCT practice. This survey was sent to a total of 65 centres experienced in allo-HCT for myelofibrosis across Europe in February 2020. By time of survey closure, a total of 36 centres (55 %) had completed the survey. Responses were aggregated and reported in a comparative fashion. Marked variations in assessment prior to allo-HCT, JAK inhibitor management peri-transplant, molecular, histopathological and cytogenetic monitoring and approaches to the definition and management of relapse were apparent across surveyed centres. On the basis of these findings, future CMWP efforts will focus on defining guidelines for relapse definition in MF allo-HCT and also suggested optimal monitoring practices for the transplant community.

Maintaining adequate donations and a sustainable blood supply: Lessons learned.

BACKGROUND: The availability of a safe blood supply is a key component of transfusion medicine. A decade of decreased blood use, decreased payment for products, and a dwindling donor base have placed the sustainability of the US blood supply at risk. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A literature review was performed for blood center (BC) and hospital disaster management, chronically transfusion-dependent diseases, and appropriate use of group O-negative red blood cells (RBCs), and the Choosing Wisely campaign. The aim was to identify current practice and to make recommendations for BC and hospital actions. RESULTS: While BCs are better prepared to handle disasters than after the 9/11 attacks, messaging to the public remains difficult, as donors often do not realize that blood transfused during a disaster was likely collected before the event. BCs and transfusion services should participate in drafting disaster response plans. Hospitals should maintain inventories adequate for patients in the event supply is disrupted. Providing specialty products for transfusion-dependent patients can strain collections, lead to increased use of group O RBCs, and create logistical inventory challenges for hospitals. The AABB Choosing Wisely initiative addresses overuse of blood components to optimally use this precious resource. Group O-negative RBCs should be transfused only to patients who truly need them. CONCLUSIONS: Collecting and maintaining a blood supply robust enough to handle disasters and transfusion-dependent patients in need of specialty products is challenging. Collaboration of all parties should help to optimize resources, ensure appropriate collections, improve patient care, and ultimately result in a robust, sustainable blood supply.

Establishing a Satellite Transfusion Service Within an Academic Medical Center.

OBJECTIVES: Increasingly complex medical care requires specialized transfusion support close at hand. Hospital growth can necessitate expansion of blood bank services to new locations to ensure rapid delivery of blood products. We describe the opening of a new satellite transfusion service designed to serve the needs of a pediatric hospital. METHODS: Institutional transition teams and stakeholders collaborated to discuss options for providing blood at a new pediatric hospital. A staffed satellite transfusion service met the diverse needs of multiple services and was considered a compromise between a full new transfusion service and automated solutions. RESULTS: Initial challenges in establishing the laboratory included regulatory uncertainty and interactions between two hospitals' information technology services. Laboratory scientist staffing and actual use required adapting the satellite service to an emergency release-only model. CONCLUSIONS: A flexibly staffed satellite transfusion service met the most urgent needs of a pediatric hospital expansion. Review of implementation revealed potential process improvements for future expansions, including comprehensive routine and massive transfusion simulations. The challenges experienced in supplying staff and specialized blood products track with national trends. Other institutions may consider establishing a satellite transfusion service in the context of both increasingly sophisticated automated solutions and complex blood needs.

The effect of entrustable professional activities on pathology resident confidence in blood banking/transfusion medicine.

BACKGROUND: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requires milestone reporting of the Six General Core Competencies. Additionally, Graduate Medical Education (GME) is transitioning to adopt competency-based education methodologies including entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for objective, observable, and measurable milestone progression. The College of American Pathologists published 19 EPAs, including one for transfusion-related adverse events. This survey study includes developing EPAs for transfusion reaction evaluation and assessing residents before and after implementing these EPAs. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Three transfusion reaction EPAs were developed and implemented in July 2018 for the Postgraduate Year (PGY) 2 pathology residents. An online, anonymous survey was sent to all 21 pathology trainees before and one year after EPA implementation. In July 2018 and August 2019, each survey included the same six multiple-choice, single-response, confidence questions, with a rating scale of extremely, very, slightly, or not at all confident. This study was approved by the hospital's Institutional Review Board for Health Sciences Research and GME Committee. RESULTS: Analysis was performed on PGY2-4 residents. In 2018, 13 of 20 participants were analyzed. In 2019, 15 of 19 participants were analyzed. Number and percentage of responses were reported. The results showed an increase in trainee confidence, with the greatest improvement among the first class to use the EPAs. CONCLUSION: EPAs provide an effective framework for objective and measurable progression of trainees. One year after the implementation of transfusion reaction EPAs at our site, the trainees showed enhanced confidence levels in handling Blood Bank and Transfusion Medicine Services coverage.

Production and Quality Requirements of Human Platelet Lysate: A Position Statement from the Working Party on Cellular Therapies of the International Society of Blood Transfusion.

Human platelet lysate (HPL), rich in growth factors, is an efficient alternative supplement to fetal bovine serum (FBS) for ex vivo propagation of stromal cell-based medicinal products. Since 2014, HPL has been a focus of the Working Party for Cellular Therapies of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT). Currently, as several Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-compliant manufacturing protocols exist, an international consensus defining the optimal modes of industrial production, product specification, pathogen safety, and release criteria of this ancillary material (AM) is needed. This opinion article by the ISBT Working Party summarizes the current knowledge on HPL production and proposes recommendations on manufacturing and quality management in line with current technological innovations and regulations of biological products and advanced therapy medicinal products.

Transfusion Medicine Equations Made Internet Accessible.

Multiple mathematical equations inform the practice of transfusion medicine. These equations apply to a wide range of topics: dosage of blood products, calculation of fluid volumes, and even specific treatment decisions (e.g. corrected count increment for determination of platelet refractoriness). The calculation of these equations can be complicated, prone to error, and time-consuming. A trusted source is needed to accurately perform these calculations 24 hours a day without error and without monetary cost. We sought to build internet-enabled calculators relevant to the practice of transfusion medicine. We partnered with MDCalc, an online host of medical calculators with 1 million monthly users in 196 countries, to design and host the calculators. The calculators guide users in the application of transfusion medicine equations by providing indications for use, inputs for the equations variables, error-checking, warnings for bad inputs, and interpretive guidance of the result. The following calculators were built: blood volume, corrected count increment (CCI), plasma dosage, cryoprecipitated antihemophilic factor dosage, approximate number of units for compatibility testing, maternal-fetal hemorrhage Rh(D) immune globulin dosage, intrauterine RBC transfusion dosage, neonatal polycythemia partial exchange, theoretical removal of a substance by plasmapheresis, sickle cell RBC exchange volume, peripheral blood stem cell collection, and a calculator relevant to donor lymphocyte infusion. Clinicians can now utilize this reputable and highly visible online source to access these common transfusion medicine equations at any time with an internet-enabled device (https://www.mdcalc.com/search?filter=transfusion+medicine).

Patient Blood Management: a revolutionary approach to transfusion medicine.

Patient Blood Management (PBM) is a multimodal, multidisciplinary approach adopted to limit the use and the need for allogeneic blood transfusion in all at-risk patients with the aim of improving their clinical outcomes. Although PBM usually refers to surgical patients, its clinical use has gradually evolved over the last few years and it now also refers to medical conditions. This review will critically analyse the current knowledge on the use of PBM programmes in surgical and non-surgical patients.

Challenges in Establishing a Transfusion Medicine Service: The Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi Experience.

CONTEXT.­: Opening a new hospital is a once in a lifetime experience and can be very inspiring for those involved in its activation. However, establishing a safe transfusion practice in a greenfield environment comes with unique challenges and opportunities. OBJECTIVE.­: To highlight critical activation components such as on-boarding of new personnel, establishing clinical practices, and integrating critical laboratory software. DESIGN.­: Our staff initially faced challenges in standardizing transfusion medicine clinical practice inside the laboratory. Our efforts were mainly focused on the appropriate use of various transfusion orders, creating comprehensive policies for type and screening, cost effective utilization of blood products, and establishment of the maximum surgical blood order schedule. The transfusion service was launched with 2 information technology programs that separately facilitated steps in the transfusion process, but did not provide centralized access to the entire process. In these circumstances, we partnered with the laboratory information system team to create a series of interfaces that streamlined each system's functionality and implemented the existing infrastructure with upgrades that enable remote location and management of blood products. RESULTS.­: The transfusion medicine team spent more than a year training and monitoring workflows to avoid individual variations between technologists and to adopt our own standards of practice. Participation in a structured training plan was also necessary between clinical caregivers to know the safe and efficient use of these standards. CONCLUSIONS.­: Although laboratory and clinical staff are knowledgeable in care delivery, it is always a learning experience to establish a new system because of the natural tendency of resorting to previous practices and resistance to new approaches.

How to build an allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant unit in 2016: Proposal for a practical framework.

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation is part of the standard of care for many hematological diseases. Over the last decades, significant advances in patient and donor selection, conditioning regimens as well as supportive care of patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation leading to improved overall survival have been made. In view of many new treatment options in cellular and molecular targeted therapies, the place of allogeneic transplantation in therapy concepts must be reviewed. Most aspects of hematopoietic cell transplantation are well standardized by national guidelines or laws as well as by certification labels such as FACT-JACIE. However, the requirements for the construction and layout of a unit treating patients during the acute phase of the transplantation procedure or at readmission for different complications are not well defined. In addition, the infrastructure of such a unit may be decisive for optimized care of these fragile patients. Here we describe the process of planning a transplant unit in order to open a discussion that could lead to more precise guidelines in the field of infrastructural requirements for hospitals caring for people with severe immunosuppression.

Lean management and medical laboratory: application in transfusionnal immuno-hematology.

Despite a common use in industrial applications, only a few studies describe the lean management methods in medical laboratory. These tools have been evaluated in analysis laboratory of blood donors, especially in immuno-hematology sector. The aim was to optimize the organization and maintain team cohesion and strong staff involvement in a restructuring context. The tools used and the results obtained are presented in this study.

Building a New Transfusion Service.

OBJECTIVES: For over 60 years, Harborview Medical Center (HMC) in Seattle has received its blood components and pretransfusion testing from a centralized transfusion service operated by the regional blood supplier. In 2011, a hospital-based transfusion service (HBTS) was activated. METHODS: After 5 years of operation, we evaluated the effects of the HBTS by reviewing records of hospital blood use, quality system events, blood product delivery times, and costs. Furthermore, the effects of in-house expertise on laboratory medicine resident and medical laboratory scientist student training, as well as regulatory and accrediting agency concerns, were reviewed. RESULTS: Blood use records from 2003 to 2015 demonstrated large reductions in blood component procurement, allocation, transfusion, and wastage with decreases in costs temporally related to the change in service. The turnaround time for thawed plasma for trauma patients decreased from 90 to 3 minutes. Transfusion medicine education metrics for residents and laboratory technology students improved significantly. HMC researchers brought in $2 million in transfusion research funding. CONCLUSIONS: HMC successfully transitioned to an HBTS, providing world-class primary transfusion support to a level 1 trauma center. Near-term benefits in patient care, education, and research resulted. Blood support became faster, safer, and cheaper.

Challenges and Research in Managing Blood Supply in China.

Although considerable progress has been made in improving the blood service system in China over the last 2 decades, many challenges remain. A number of issues have received public attentions; however, others continue to be underacknowledged and controversial. This article describes 3 of these important and less emphasized issues: first, the ambiguity of the definition of voluntary nonremunerated blood donation and its relationship to an adequate blood supply; second, the current inadequacies of cost recovery from the blood service system; and third, the lack of a universally implemented program of hemovigilance. Currently, there is controversy regarding these challenges. Open recognition and discussion offers the prospect of bringing solutions closer to reality.

Patient Blood Management Bundles to Facilitate Implementation.

More than 30% of the world's population are anemic with serious economic consequences including reduced work capacity and other obstacles to national welfare and development. Red blood cell transfusion is the mainstay to correct anemia, but it is also 1 of the top 5 overused procedures. Patient blood management (PBM) is a proactive, patient-centered, and multidisciplinary approach to manage anemia, optimize hemostasis, minimize iatrogenic blood loss, and harness tolerance to anemia. Although the World Health Organization has endorsed PBM in 2010, many hospitals still seek guidance with the implementation of PBM in clinical routine. Given the use of proven change management principles, we propose simple, cost-effective measures enabling any hospital to reduce both anemia and red blood cell transfusions in surgical and medical patients. This article provides comprehensive bundles of PBM components encompassing 107 different PBM measures, divided into 6 bundle blocks acting as a working template to develop institutions' individual PBM practices for hospitals beginning a program or trying to improve an already existing program. A stepwise selection of the most feasible measures will facilitate the implementation of PBM. In this manner, PBM represents a new quality and safety standard.