Teaching Transfusion Medicine Because transfusion medicine is a relatively new specialty, there is a pressing need to provide training opportunities for clinical care and research. Beginning in the year 2000, UCSF will offer a one-year clinical fellowship in transfusion medicine. During this year, the fellow will participate in activities in the Blood Donor and Transfusion Center, designed to develop skills in determining donor acceptability, donor testing and counseling, and in the use of various blood bank products. The fellow will serve as an educational resource to blood bank residents and technologists, and to physicians and nurses on the clinical services. After the clinical year, fellows may design a research program.
Transfusion medicine is also an essential part of resident and medical student training.
Here they are exposed to all aspects of transfusion medicine, ranging from clinical issues such as obtaining a blood product for an alloimmunized recipient, to deciding whether a prospective donor's use of a prescription medication should prevent her from giving blood. A brief introduction to transfusion medicine has traditionally been incorporated in the first years of medical education. All rights reserved.