Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis, and Hemostasis: Review Questions and Case Studies

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.