Educational Sessions

Wednesday, April 25

Industry Workshops - Bonus content provided by our Vendor Partners, included in your meeting registration!

12:15 - 1:15 PM

REAL TALK with University Medical Center, Experience with Immucor’s Echo Lumena™

Virginia Plasencia, MT and Katrina Price, MT of University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas

Speakers will openly and honestly discuss their evaluation of Immucor’s 5th generation fully automated blood bank instrument, Echo Lumena™. The luncheon includes a presentation of data on sensitivity and specificity as compared to comparison to their current Echo® as well as reaction images from both the current Echo and Echo Lumena.

Bacterial contamination in platelets today: Safety, Availability, and Savings

Dr. Alex Ryder Le Bonheur Children’s in Memphis TN

Verax Biomedical was founded upon the singular vision of detecting bacterial contamination in cells and tissues intended for transfusion and transplantation. Recognizing that bacteria pose a unique infectious challenge in these life giving tissues, we realized that novel approaches to detection were called for. While cellular materials are routinely tested for viral contaminants, bacteria have posed a long standing and heretofore poorly addressed challenge. Unlike viruses, bacteria can replicate outside of a living host, meaning they can grow in these cellular matrices during storage prior to transfusion or transplantation. This results in the unique dilemma of an infectious contaminant that can grow from unmeasurable low levels at the time of collection to massive levels at the time of transfusion or transplantation, posing a serious and often fatal risk to their recipient. Our vision is to create rapid tests that are practical to implement as close to the time of transfusion or transplantation as possible, thus enabling the detection and elimination of these contaminated materials from the inventory prior to their use. The first application of PGD technology is a test for use during Quality Control testing for the presence of bacterial contamination in human platelets.

1:30 - 2:30 PM

Pathogen Reduced Platelets: Expanding Supply and Patient Access

Beau J. Robertson, MPH, MLS(ASCP),CQA(ASQ), Associate Deployment Director, Cerus Corporation

Cynthia Robbins, RPH BSHARM, Sr. Director, Hospital Affairs

Platelet safety and availability continue to be of concern for blood suppliers and hospitals, particularly in light of the FDA draft guidance on bacterial contamination. While pathogen reduction plays a pivotal role in improving platelet safety, challenges have been expressed regarding the sufficient production capacity of pathogen reduced platelets to meet hospital needs. The first part of this symposium will provide an overview of methods used by blood centers to increase production compatibility with the INTERCEPT Blood System requirements while maintaining overall split rate. The second part of this symposium will review hospital transfusion services considerations for safe blood products in the context of quality initiative programs. Reduction of the risks associated with platelet transfusion may help hospitals minimize occurrences of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and readmissions thereby improving patient outcomes and minimizing negative financial impact.

2:45 - 3:45 PM

Oral Abstracts

Awards/Plenary

Determining the clinical significance of anti-M using monocyte monolayer assay. Brett C. Dunlap LifeShare Blood Center

Increasing Compatibility of Apheresis Platelet Collections with Pathogen Reduction While Maintaining Current Split Rates. Elan Weiner, V.era Chrebtow

Cost Implications of Pathogen Reduced Platelets: A Hospital Budget Impact Model. KM Prioli, JK Karp, JH Herman, LT Pizzi, C Robbins

4:00 - 5:00 PM

Opening Plenary

Awards/Plenary

Motivating Leaders in Business and Life, Matt Jones, How do you keep motivated when faced with adversity? This is an important question for leaders of successful organizations. What happens when change, burnout, or stress threatens continual growth? How do you increase productivity through passion and perseverance? From developing greater resilience to living with greater passion, Matt shares practical strategies that can be used to overcome challenges and achieve greater success.

Matt’s keynotes are based of his inspiring life experiences of overcoming cancer three times when doctors did not think he would live, surviving a bone marrow transplant, relearning how to walk, and completing seven marathons on seven continents. Less than three hundred people in the world have done this. For more information about Matt Jones please visit his website.

Thursday, April 26

8:00 - 9:30 AM

Patient Blood Management

Technical/Scientific

How do you implement a therapeutic phlebotomy clinic? Arthur Bracey, MD, In the face of decreasing revenue from declining blood use and inability to pass along ever increasing costs of producing safe blood to hospitals, blood centers are looking for additional sources of revenue to maintain a positive bottom line. This lecture will discuss implementation of a therapeutic phlebotomy clinic whose purpose is to treat patients with diagnoses not eligible for transfusion of collected products. Challenges prior to implementation will be disused. The lecture will conclude with future directions

Ledin Award Lecture

Pretransfusion Testing in the Age of Genomics, Connie Westhoff, Typing for RBC antigens by targeting single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) is now becoming commonplace, particularly for typing multiply transfused patients and typing for antigens for which there are no commercial reagents. The use of a genomics approach in routine transfusion medicine practice is not yet a reality as there are some limitations with SNP-typing. Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) is transforming the field of genomics because it allows analysis of the whole genome at a cost that continues to decline Patient genome sequencing as part of clinical care will likely become more commonplace, and this existing information will be useful for routine pre-transfusion testing. This represents a cost-effective and practical use of genomic information that could streamline pre-transfusion testing and improve transfusion safety.

Creating an Engaged Workforce

Administrative

Creating an Engaged Workforce Through Leadership Coaching, Lisa Robinson In this interactive leadership workshop, you'll have the opportunity to learn and practice the key coaching skills of: Powerful questions, managing vs. coaching mindset, active listening, managing assumptions, and self awareness. You will also leave with a plan to teach these skills to your leaders and teams when you're back at work after the conference. Intended Audience - Leaders who have a strong desire to strengthen their leadership coaching skills; Level - Intermediate

Safety in Aphresis

Apheresis Nursing

Improving Safety in Apheresis How To Determine Total Blood Volume and Perform Apheresis Safely in Certain Patient/Donor Populations, Liz Rosenbaum, MD Improving safety in special apheresis patient populations: the challenges of calculating non-standard total blood volumes. Intended Audience - Physicians, Nurses, Medical Technologists, ; Level - Intermediate

Ethics in Apheresis, Andrew Jones, MD This session will focus on ethical issues associated with patients/donors undergoing therapeutic apheresis or apheresis stem cell collection. Intended Audience - Physicians, Nurses, Medical Technologists, ; Level - Intermediate

9:45 - 11:15 AM

Treatment of Bleeding Disorders

Technical/Scientific

DOAC Therapy, CV Surgery, and Managing Bleeding, Alice Chen, MD, PhD, Newer anticoagulant and antiplatelet agents present significant challenges to planning and performing CV surgery. An overview of these medications, reversal agents, and a practical approach to managing bleeding in the perioperative setting will be presented. Intended Audience - Physicians, Residents, Managers, Supervisors, Administration; Level - Intermediate

Hemostatic Efficacy of Fibrinogen Concentrate Compared to Cryoprecipitate, Anil Panigrahi. Fibrinogen plays a critical role in hemostasis and there is increased understanding of the risk from acquired hypofibrinogenemia that occurs during acute trauma and in surgical patients. As a result, several studies have supported early fibrinogen replacement to improve hemostasis. Standard fibrinogen replacement involves transfusion of cryoprecipitate, however, there continues to be concerns regarding the safety of allogeneic blood products. With its increasing availability, lyophilized fibrinogen concentrates may serve as a safer, efficacious alternative. In this presentation, the benefits of fibrinogen replacement will be reviewed and the safety and clinical efficacy of fibrinogen concentrates relative to cryoprecipitate will be discussed. Intended Audience - Physicians, Residents, Managers, Supervisors, Administration; Level - Intermediate

Hiring/Generational Management

Administrative

##Millennials #DigitalNatives #HowdoIWorkwithThem Version 2.0, James Giacoletti . In today's employment environment, being able to attract and retain millennial and digital natives can be a challenge. What makes these two age groups click? What are they looking for in a career with your organization? How do you keep them, other generational co-workers, and yourself working as a successful team? This session will discuss the common personality traits of the younger generations, and how these can be used to develop a successful working environment. Intended Audience: Managers/Directors, Collections, Recruitment; Level: Basic

Hiring/Generational Management, Steve Ferraiuolo, Tom Choi. Discussion around how the executive team at blood centers has changed over the years and what tools are necessary for leaders of the future. Intended Audience: Blood Center Leadership; Level: Basic

Therapeutic Apheresis Case Studies

Apheresis Nursing

Theraputic Apheresis Case Studies, Paul Eastvold, MD, MT(ASCP), Liz Rosenbaum-Marinaro, MD, Andrew Jones, MD MA Will present several case studies related to the use of plasma exchange to treat disorders such as TTP, aHUS and other autoimmune diseases.

1:00 - 2:30 PM

Legal Aspects of Transfusion Medicine

Technical/Scientific

Informed Consent, Kathleen Sazama, MD, JD. Informed consent has become a topic of recent concern for blood banks and transfusion medicine regarding both the patients and donors, particularly when research initiatives are being considered. The elements for obtaining informed consent from both patients and donors will be presented and discussed in case history format. Intended Audience - All; Level - Intermediate

Contemporary Legal and Ethical Concerns in Blood Banking, Kathleen Sazama, MD, JD. Introduction of legal issues and ethical concerns that affect all of blood banking and transfusion medicine, citing specific examples. Discuss contemporary dilemmas with potential legal or ethical implications that may affect policy decisions. Intended Audience - Leaders and practitioners in blood banking and transfusion medicine; Level - Intermediate

Leadership/Succession Planning

Administrative

Managing from the Middle: Leadership in Action, Laura Eickhoff. A review of leadership traits, competencies and practices that facilitate success for middle managers. Middle managers are in the unique position of managing supervisors while implementing the vision of organizational senior leaders. Intended Audience - Directors and Managers; Level - Intermediate

Our Industry is Changing, So must the way we Lead, Phyllis Haines. Discuss how the changes in healthcare have impacted the way we lead. Intended Audience - Directors, Managers, Supervisors, Medical Technologists; Level - Intermediate

Goodbye Spectra, Hello Optia!

Apheresis Nursing

Goodbye Spectra, Hello Optia! Paul Eastvold, MD, MT(ASCP). This presentation will briefly go over some of the history of COBE, the key differences between the Spectra andthe Optia from an operator’s perspective and then some of thetransitional issues with the Optia, specifically its leucoreduction procedure that is still to be approved by the FDA.

2:45 - 4:15 PM

Case Studies

Technical/Scientific

Dueling Consents, Richard Gammon, MD. The case study will review how clerical errors can occur with patient consent. It will show that there is a lack of understanding between patients and their providers on items discussed prior to transfusion. Level - Intermediate

A Frequent Flyer – a Hurricane of Antibodies, Lorena Aranda, MSHS,BB,MT,SBB(ASCP). An elderly female from Port Lavaca with a diagnosis of CA/anemia. Her blood samples first presented to our Immunohematology for antibody workup in November 2016. Atthis time we identified one antibody. She has been chronically transfused since then. She has been treated in Port Lavaca, TX, MD Anderson, and Houston, TX, and most recently she was a Hurricane Harvey evacuee and was displaced in San Antonio, TX.

An Unexpected Case of Post-transfusion Purpura, Jennifer Woo, MD This case presentation highlights an unexpected case of post-transfusion purpura (PTP) occurring in the post-operative setting. The discussion will review the differential diagnosis of unexplained thromobocytopenia, laboratory methods to diagnose PTP, and treatment options for PTP patients. Level - Basic

Blood Donation during Pregnancy Due to Anti-Ku HDFN, Mrigender Virk, MD, A case of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN) was identified during a female's first pregnancy and was found to be caused by anti-Ku and anti-D. Due to the extremely rare phenotype of the mother and difficulty obtaining blood for the fetus, a bedside blood donation was done in the mother's hospital room. Level - Basic

Customer Service

Administrative

What you say without saying anything at all, PJ Geraghty, MBA

Describe how attitude and appearance affect customer perception.

Apheresis

Apheresis Nursing

Photopheresis in the Blood Bank Setting , Salima Shaikh, MD. The principles and technology of photopheresis will be discussed, along with advantages, benefits, and challenges of implementing photopheresis at the blood center. Level - Intermediate

Short Term and Long Term Complications of Frequent Apheresis Donation, Jonathan Hughes, MD. An overview of complications that may be experienced by frequent apheresis donors will be presented. Level - Basic

Friday, April 27

8:00 - 9:30 AM

Immunohematology/Molecular

Technical/Scientific

Fetal blood grouping by analysis of fetal DNA in maternal blood, Geoff Daniels BSc, PhD, FRCPath. Plasma from pregnant women contains a small quantity of cell-free fetal DNA, which can be used to determine the blood groups of their fetus. In pregnant women with anti-D, knowledge of fetal D type informs the clinician whether the baby is at risk from HDFN. Also, if all D-negative pregnant women are tested, those with a D-negative fetus can be saved from unnecessary prophylactic treatment with anti-D immunoglobulin. This testing is provided routinely in several countries and being introduced in others, but is seldom performed in the USA. Is this a service that should be considered for the future? Intended Audience - A mix of Blood transfusion Professionals, Blood Banks; Level - Basic

Perkins-Garratty Lecture

Progress in Blood Safety, Steven Kleinman, MD . Blood safety has dramatically improved over the last three decades with both infectious and noninfectious risks decreasing. Decision making paradigms have also evolved, albeit more slowly. This presentation will use several specific examples to illustrate these points. Level - Intermediate

Reportable or Not

QSC

BPDs from the Transfusion Service Perspective, Mary A. Lieb MT(ASCP)SBB, CQA(ASQ). This presentation will identify the criteria for reporting a Biological Product Deviation (BPD) and discuss situations in which reporting as a BPD would not apply. Intended Audience - Blood Bankers; Level - Intermediate

Reportable or Not, Karen Dosanjh. An interactive presentation and discussion on events that may or may not be reportable to the FDA via the Biological Product Deviation Reporting process. Intended Audience - Blood Bankers; Level - Intermediate

How to Increase Appointments; Targeting New Donors; Social Media

DRC

How to Increase Appointments; Targeting New Donors; Social Media, Tirzah Zielinski. 

An interactive session focused on identifying ways and means for increasing donor appointments, targeting new donors and ways to utilize social media to reach all donors.

Shared Reality- Having Meaningful Conversations that Drive Us Towards Our Goals, Michael Rogers.

Developing agreed upon communication and knowledge standards can help us be more successful. How we arrive at those standards and how we use them is key to our success.

9:45 - 11:15 AM

Innovations/Cellular Therapy

Technical/Scientific

Cellular Therapies in Trauma and Critical Care: Pre-Clinical to Clinical Development, Shibani Pati, MD, PhD. This presentation will highlight progress in the field of cellular therapies and their applications in trauma and critical care. Pre-clinical IND supporting studies will be discussed and current clinical trials. Cell sourcing, processing and production will also briefly be discussed. Intended Audience - Physicians, Transfusion Medicine , Blood Banks; Level - Intermediate

Gene Therapy in Sickle cell Disease, Suchitra Pandey, MD. Gene therapy is currently being evaluated in clinical trials to treat sickle cell disease and offers a potential cure for sickle cell disease. This presentation will review how gene therapy is being used to treat sickle cell disease and the impact to transfusion requirements before, during, and after treatment. Intended Audience - Physicians, Technologists, Nurses; Level - Intermediate

Change Control & Validation

QSC

Best Practices in Change Control - Simplicity and Scalability, Adrienne Mendoza, CQA, CSSGB. Review Case Study of Improvements to the Change Control Programs BioBridge Global Subsidiaries, including South Texas Blood and Tissue Services. Intended Audience - Quality, Compliance and Production Personnel; Level - Intermediate

Implementation of a Blood Bank Analyzer across a Multi-Hospital System, Ann Sintef MT(ASCP), SBB, HP. Describe the process of how a regional standardization program for a new analyzer was developed and executed in the Kaiser Permanente SCAL Region. Intended Audience - Medical Directors, Managers, Supervisors, CLS; Level - Intermediate

BioLinked/ Global Blood Fund Program/ Thank the Donor Program

DRC

Thinking Beyond the Bag: New Ways to Care and Cure, Presented by: Jeannie Gardner, RN, Vice President, Donor Services, Susan Crews, Executive Director - Oklahoma Blood Institute on behalf of John Armitage, CEO, Oklahoma Blood Institute. Several new programs to engage blood recipients, blood donors, and primary care providers in the mission and expanding activities of the blood center will be highlighted. Intended Audience - Donor Recruiters, Physicians, Blood Center Staff, Transfusion Services Staff; Level - Intermediate

12:30 - 2:00 PM

Pathogen-reduced Platelets Implementation

Technical/Scientific

An Example of Implementation of Intercept Platelets , Mary Berg, MD. This presentation will describe the process used to implement pathogen-reduced platelets at an academic medical center. Intended Audience - Hospital Transfusion Service Staff, Managers, and Medical Directors; Level - Intermediate

Pathogen reduction technology in a hospital based blood center, Dawn Ward, MD. Dr. Ward will discuss the implementation and routine use of pathogen reduced platelets while maintaining a dual inventory with conventional (non-pathogen reduced) platelets. Intended Audience - Physicians, Nurses, Technical Staff; Level - Intermediate

Error Proofing

QSC

Using Human Factor Analysis to Reduce Errors, Karen Dosanjh, Theresa Dunning, MSQA, MT(ASCP)SBB, CMQ/OE(ASQ). This work shop will discuss the use of Human Factor Error Analysis to reduce human error. Analysis of Human Error due to System design gaps or Human performance limitations will be presented from the perspective of a Blood Center and Transfusion Service. Intended Audience - Quality Managers, Blood Bank Supervisors, Medical Laboratory Technologistf; Level - Basic

Iron Mitigation from the Recruitment Perspective

DRC

Blood Donation and Donor Iron from the Recruitment Perspective, Jonathan Hughes, MD

An overview of iron utilization and iron loss mitigation for blood donors. Intended Audience - Collection and Recruitment Professionals; Level - Intermediate

2:15 - 3:45 PM

Collaborations Between Blood Center and Transfusion Service

Technical/Scientific

Forecasting Platelet Transfusion Need from Hospital Big Data , Tho Pham, MD. Daily blood product use is difficult to anticipate. Platelet products are the most variable in daily usage, have short shelf lives, and are also the most expensive to produce, test, and store, and are frequently wasted due to expiration. We have investigated platelet usage patterns at our institution, and specifically interrogated the relationship between platelet usage and aggregated hospital-wide patient data over a recent consecutive 29-mo period. We have found that platelet usage is highly dependent on key patient variables. We incorporated these relationships in a mathematical model to guide collection and ordering strategy. This model minimizes waste due to expiration while avoiding shortages. Compared with historical expiration rates during the same period, our model reduces the expiration rate from 10.5 to 3.2%. Intended Audience - MD, PhD, Operations Staff; Level - Intermediate

Supplying Blood in Special Environments, Samantha Ngamsuntikul, MD. Historically, blood centers have provided blood to hospitals. Recently, our center has received requests for stocking blood on helicopters and emergency centers. The presentation is a discussion of our experiences. Intended Audience - MDs, Medical Technologists; Level - Basic

Disaster Ops: Preparing for the Unexpected

QSC

Preparing for the Next Disaster (and the next...and the next), Garrick "Rick" Chatelain, BS, MT(ASCP). Natural and man-made disasters seem to be on the rise. With each one, we learn new lessons, but each disaster is different. Are there any common themes that can be used to prepare for all disasters? Intended Audience - Supervisors, Managers, Directors, Excecutives; Level - Basic

Active Shooter – Lessons Learned, Joyce Dobard, Lisa Gorlick. This presentation will share lessons learned from the Las Vegas experience of an active shooter disaster event. Intended Audience - Transfusion Service Quality Managers, Supervisors, Medical Directors, Medical Technologists; Level - Intermediate

Community Leadership from a Volunteer Perspective

DRC

Increasing High School Productivity, Ashley Herman, MS. The presentation is intended to create dialog on unique methods to increase collections at High School Blood Drives. Level - Basic

Community Leadership From a Volunteer Perspective, Joe Ayer, MBA. Have you ever wondered how to motivate your community to be more engaged with your organization? In this presentation you will learn how to leverage volunteer leadership within your community to inspire more depth in your constituency leading to better outcomes. Level - Basic

4:00 - 5:30 PM

Ask the Experts

Technical/Scientific

Geoff Daniels BSc, PhD, FRCPath, Richard Gammon, MD, Kathleen Sazama, MD, JD,

If you have any questions you would like answered by our panel of experts – this is your time to ask! Submit your questions via the Joint Meeting Mobile App email to scabb.org, or drop off at the Registration Desk.

Saturday, April 28

8:00 - 9:00 AM

MD Roundtable

Technical/Scientific

Barbara Bryant, MD, Richard Gammon, MD This session consists of discussions moderated by Dr. Gammon and Dr. Bryant on chosen hot topics of low titer group O, pre-op anemia programs, patient blood management metrics, and by participants. Different practices on how to address current issues are compared, giving rise to potential improvement in practices. Making contact with other medical directors in the area allows for furutre interactions and resources when issues occur. All are welcome to attend.

9:15 - 10:45 AM

Award Lectures

Awards/Plenary

Administrative Award Lecture: Disrupt or be Disrupted - How to bring new ideas into your organization. George "Bud" Scholl OneBlood has built a reputation on being innovative and entreprenuerial in a highly regulated environment. Learn how OneBlood goes about incubating new ideas and turning them into new initiatives and businesses. Intended Audience - All; Level - Intermediate

Technical/Scientific Award Lecture: Blood group diversity and its impact on transfusion medicine, Geoff Daniels BSc, PhD, FRCPath Blood group antigens exhibit a wide structural diversity, including peptide antigens on proteins and carbohydrate epitopes on glycoproteins and/or glycolipids. Glycoproteins are inserted within the membrane via single or multiple trans-membrane domains, or via glycosylphosphatidylinositol linkages. Blood group antigens provide a variety of physiological functions, including membrane transport, adhesion and receptor functions, enzyme activity, complement regulation, anchoring the membrane to the cytoskeleton, and contributing to the glycocalyx. This presentation will also review the diversity of blood group antibodies in relation to their clinical importance in haemolytic transfusion reactions and haemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn. Intended Audience - A mix of blood transfusion professionals, including some with expertise in blood grouping.; Level - Intermediate

10:45 - 11:45 AM

Karen Williams Memorial Lecture

Awards/Plenary

Transfusion-Associated Bacterial Sepsis, Richard J. Benjamin MBChB, PhD. Bacterial sepsis remains the most common transfusion-related infection. Even with optimum skin cleansing, sample diversion and culture screening, 1:1,000-1:2,500 platelets contain viable bacteria. Low bacterial numbers not detected by culture can grow to life-threatening concentrations during storage. FDA draft guidance recommends additional interventions, including delayed re-culture, point of issue testing or pathogen reduction. Following discussions at a FDA BPAC meeting in November 2017, additional options are being considered, including anaerobic cultures, delayed sampling and enlarged volumes. Hemovigilance reports from the UK, Switzerland, Belgium and France are instructive. This presentation will comment on the options available to further protect patients.