by Huy P. Pham (Author), Lance A. Williams III (Author)
Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis, and Hemostasis: Review Questions and Case Studies
is the collaborative effort that spanned a time period of 2 years and
included 50 experts, many whom are national leaders in their respected
fields. It also represents the passion and privilege we feel to teach
the next generation of physicians in Transfusion Medicine and
Apheresis.
The main goal for this book is to help
the readers build a solid foundation of both basic and advanced
conceptual knowledge to prepare for the American Board of Pathology
(ABP) certification exam in Transfusion Medicine. This book is not
intended to be a substitute for textbooks, original research or review
articles, and/or clinical training. Further, since the field of
medicine, both from a scientific and regulatory perspective, rapidly
changes, the readers are advised to continuously update their knowledge
by attending national meetings and reading clinical journals. To equip
the readers with the basic knowledge in critical reading and data
analysis, which is an essential skill in daily medical practice, a novel
chapter titled “Data Interpretation in Laboratory Medicine was
included in this book. In this chapter, the readers are asked to make
logical conclusions based on the given data and/or statistical results.
Moreover, there is also a chapter on “Practical Calculations in
Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis, and Hemostasis to help consolidate all
the necessary formulas commonly used in daily practice for easy
reference. These chapters are unique to our book and will not be found
in any other currently on the market.
All of the
questions in this book were originally created by the authors of each
chapter. Each question can either be standalone or part of a case
scenario representing challenge cases in Transfusion Medicine,
Apheresis, and Hemostasis. These questions often represent both rare
and common clinical scenarios that the authors have seen during their
clinical practice. Each question is then followed by 5 possible
answers, with only one being correct (or the best answer). After the
question, there is a conceptual explanation followed by a more factual
explanation of the right and wrong answers. We gave the individual
authors the freedom to choose how they explained the wrong answer
choices. Some authors chose to be more direct (e.g. Answer A is
incorrect because…), while other authors chose a more conversational
style (e.g. Human resources (answer A) includes staffing, selection,
orientation, training, and competency assessment of employees). This
format is designed to help the student linking the conceptual and
factual knowledge together to form a solid foundation for use in
clinical practice. At the end of each chapter, there is a list of
articles and textbooks that will prove useful to the motivated student
who wishes to become an expert in the field. Another special feature to
our textbook is the presence of a pre-test and post-test, which are
provided to help the readers with self-assessment.
As stated above, the main focus of this book is to help the readers
preparing for the ABP certification exam in Transfusion Medicine.
However, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field of Transfusion
Medicine, Apheresis, and Hemostasis, we believe that this book is also
beneficial to and can be used by all clinicians involved in the
management of complex transfusion, apheresis, and hemostasis issues,
such as hematologists, anesthesiologists, surgeons, and critical care
physicians. We further believe that it is a helpful guide for these
specialists to prepare for their own specialty certification exam, when
the topics are related to Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis, and
Hemostasis.
