Transfusion Medicine
The UCLA Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine offers an ACGME-approved one-year training program in Transfusion Medicine during which Transfusion Medicine fellows develop expertise in Transfusion Medicine practice, transfusion service management, donor center operations and laboratory management. In addition, UCLA fellows will participate in Transfusion Medicine-based research and develop expertise in evaluating and implementing new techniques and laboratory procedures. Upon completion of our program, UCLA fellows will be qualified and ready to take on the responsibilities of Medical Director of a transfusion service, either hospital-based or at a regional blood center.
The core of the our program centers around two hospital-based transfusion services at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital, which provide exposure to adult, pediatric, and neonatal patients. Practical experience is gained through daily exposure to red cell type and screen procedures, antibody identification and complex serologic evaluations; transfusion reaction work-ups; daily blood component inventory analysis; special needs consultations (CMV seronegative, irradiated, washed, fresh, HLA-antigen negative platelets, etc.); blood component therapy; massive transfusion protocol support for trauma, obstetric and transplant patients; evaluations for platelet refractoriness. Fellows serve as part of our transfusion medicine consultation team, providing either first call for problems or decision-making support for anatomic/clinical pathology residents. Transfusion medicine physician calls are initiated either from requesting clinicians or from our own technical staff, as determined directly from our laboratory policies.
The clinical caseload reflects the patient mix at both hospitals, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital, providing care for tertiary/quaternary patients with a level I - designated trauma center, complex cardiovascular and transplantation programs, and a community-based practice, respectively. The supervision of the transfusion medicine team is under the direction of attending faculty members, who facilitate case-oriented and didactic learning processes throughout the year. The trainees also interact in a more limited fashion with the other residents and fellows in our Pathology Department via joint conferences and interactions in the area of hematopathology and general clinical pathology. Additional interactions occur through consultations with other services including adult and pediatrics hematology/oncology, anesthesiology, surgery and maternal-fetal medicine.
Experience in blood center administration will be gained at the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center (BPC), which collects approximately 35,000 donations per year at two fixed sites and on mobile drives throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Through the BPC, the transfusion medicine fellow will participate in education and instruction on recruitment; donor suitability for autologous, directed and volunteer donors; blood collection; management of donor reactions; and donor testing. Additionally, the fellow will rotate through the UCLA Component Processing Laboratory for experience with blood product manufacturing, processing, and preparation.
Additional rotations through the American Red Cross Reference Laboratory, UCLA Immunogenetics (HLA) Center, Cedars-Sinai Therapeutic Apheresis Center, and City of Hope Apheresis Unit and Stem Cell Processing Laboratory complete our comprehensive fellowship training year. Finally, the fellow's schedule allows for ample time for elective and research opportunities depending upon individual fellow interests.
Fellowship training and research opportunities are supported by the Henry Brandler Endowment Fund. Mr. Brandler was a long-time and much-loved volunteer in the UCLA Blood & Platelet Center.
If you have any further questions, please contact Victoria Amador.
