Transfusion medicine: discipline with a future

Training physicians in the discipline of transfusion medicine—2004

“…One ticking time bomb has gone largely unacknowledged, if not unnoticed. A discipline abounding in promise 3 —cellular immunology, recombinant cytokines, molecular diagnostics, progenitor cell and gene therapy, therapeutic apheresis, eradication of emerging infectious agents—has found it increasingly difficult to fill existing academic training programs with the physicians who are needed to nurture and advance the field.…”

Proteomics in transfusion medicine

“…19 Proteomics could be used to address other broad areas of transfusion medical practice, including pathogen inactivation, blood substitutes, and hematopoietic growth factors. 20 For example, proteomics techniques could be used to screen compounds that inactivate viruses and bacteria while monitoring for adverse effects (i.e., do these compounds alter cells or plasma proteins?). Because pharmaceutical companies are presently using proteomics approaches to discover new drugs, similar technology could hasten the development and testing of blood substitutes.…”

Career activities of physicians taking the subspecialty board examination in blood banking/transfusion medicine

“…Although there are many indications that BB/TM is an interesting career, 5‐12 this changed environment could make such a career less attractive to young physicians, and thus we may not be training and developing enough young physicians to adequately carry the field forward in the future. There is no structure, however, by which to determine the number of physicians needed for the future nor to determine whether an adequate number is being trained and is entering BB/TM careers.…”