This is a revised version of a previous post.

I have had many medical students, residents, and fellows rotate through my Transfusion Medicine section.  Hardly anyone has any interest in making my discipline his/her career.  It is a required rotation or an “easy” rotation during which the trainee may take his vacation.  The trainee will cram for the examination and then promptly forget it.

I left practice in the USA in 1990, in what I consider the golden age of laboratory medicine.  We had supervisors for each laboratory section.  In the blood bank, we had many staff with SBBs or who were SBB students.  We were very self-sufficient in handling immunohematology problems except for rare blood types or antibodies to high incidence/prevalence antigens.

When I returned to visit my old laboratory, I sensed a deprofessionalization of the laboratory and blood bank in particular.  Blood Bank now is a cost center, not an area of revenue.  Why hire experienced blood bankers for most hospitals?  Send the antibody workups to the Blood Center.  There are limited jobs for transfusion medicine consultants.  Minimize testing, don’t do extended antigen typings, etc.

Nowadays, I feel like one of the dinosaurs marching into oblivion like in Walt Disney’s Fantasia film, the section called The Rite of Spring.  Who will replace those retiring?  Have you ever noted the average age of attendees at the AABB annual convention?  I feel young when I go there (and don’t worry about the gray hair!)

I want to attract new doctors and scientists to Transfusion Medicine.  I really try, but most have no interest and look on their rotations as a necessary evil.

I have lowered my expectations for most medical trainees in Transfusion Medicine.  They don’t like it, they just want to pass it, and move on.  What must I impress them with for their future careers?  What is essential for them to remember?

I have had both pathology and non-pathology trainees.  Surgical and ob/gyn doctors used to spend one month whereas the hematology and pathology residents/fellows spent on average three months.  The few interested in the field might do multiple rotations.

I still gave them lectures on a variety of topics, especially how to transfuse blood components, basic ABO/Rh antigens, compatibility testing, and direct antiglobulin testing.  They would forget most of this, but I wanted them to remember TURN-AROUND-TIMES:

Examples:

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO PERFORM THE TEST?  TO FIND COMPATIBLE BLOOD?  TO THAW THE PLASMA?  RELEASE AN MTP SHIPMENT?  TO PERFORM A TRANSFUSION REACTION WORKUP BEFORE RELEASING MORE BLOOD?

I am not discouraging people from entering the field, but I am a realist to know that few will share my passion for serology or want to take call on difficult immunohematology cases.  At least if they understand the pressure the technical staff are in and these turn-around-times this will make both their work as clinicians and mine as transfusion medicine more congenial.

Sometimes, you may not have adequate resources for a project so you will consider hiring an outside consultant.  During my career, I have used several outside consultants for projects ranging from installing a new general laboratory computer system to assisting in getting international accreditations.

For a complex accreditation process such as AABB, I have used such consultants to audit operations in the donor center including processing and testing, hospital blood banks, and stem cell laboratory.  They are high-level technical specialists with highest blood bank qualifications (e.g. SBB(ASCP) or equivalent) and have considerable experience in practice of blood banking and quality systems.  They have been AABB Assessors so they can give you a dry-run accreditation assessment.

Depending on the project, you may need one or a group of consultants.  I have worked with both individual consultants and groups.  A group can complete the tasks quicker but this is not always necessary.  Organizations such as AABB have many different consultants with different types of expertise so you can select the most appropriate individuals to form a team for your needs.

These specialists can audit your operations and propose a model and if you want, actually help you to implement the processes.  They can help you with the accreditation formalities, especially if you do not have any staff with experience in the process.  It all depends how much you can spend.

In the Middle East, to bring in such consultants may mean expensive air fares, hotels, meals, plus the actual costs of doing the consulting.  This is a major investment for your organization but it is well worth it to expedite the process.  There are local consultants available as well and using them may greatly help with the expenses.

Although it is expensive upfront, it can be cheaper in the long run by establishing the appropriate framework in the first place.  You can engage the consultants to actually do much of the work themselves, but it is better for them to offer a train the trainer experience, i.e. engage your own technical staff to learn new skills and then have them cross-train the rest of the staff. 

Based on the findings, your local staff can implement the changes.  You can then consider rehiring the consultants to verify that the work has been done properly.

I have used both individual consultants and groups through AABB Consulting.  My staff and I have learned much from such interactions, and I highly recommend their use when local expertise is not available.