Reps.  -More- 

Stem cell trials planned by Geron and Advanced Cell Technology have sparked concern from proponents and critics about maturit -More- 

Aug.  -More- 

Supervisor of Transfusion Services
Cooley Dickinson Hospital

The trouble with people is not that they don't know, but that they know so much that ain't so. -More- 

Has anyone tested there platelets using the Verax method to detect bacteria? We have just started it and we are encountering alot of false positives? Any suggestions?

Our facility is looking at buying a new plasma thawer to replace our waterbath. We are trying to find something that will thaw faster and take up less counter space. We are looking at the Cytotherm 4T model that has the capacity of 1-6 units at a time. It will also allow for a second corral that will allow up to 12 units at a time. Does anyone currently have this plasma thawer? Also, what are your thoughts?

Thanks,
Krystal

When we have a request for CMV negative, we currently have our blood center send us tested CMV negative units. We give all leuko-reduced products and are seriously thinking of just going with the terminology CMV safe and save money and trouble.
What do others do?

Vote for the new name of BloodBankTalk.
We currently own several domain names, one of these two will be our new site name and new web address.

Please see this Blog announcement for more info.

New TM blog:

• Goldfinger's filings, a customer's toolkit (Musings on business intelligence)

This blog is about the many useful tidbits in SEC Form 10-K filings, tidbits that can be used to help customers decide on suppliers and to leverage information when negotiating contracts.

Form 10-K reports, which public companies file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, offer comprehensive business overviews of a registrant's business, such as history, competitors, risk factors, legal proceedings.

The blog's specific focus is on Immucor's latest SEC Form 10-K report. See

• http://traq.blogspot.com

Cheers, Pat
UA: http://www.ualberta.ca/~pletendr/
TraQ: http://www.traqprogram.ca/whatsnew-chrono.asp

We just went live with our Echo this week. I am curious if anyone performs DAT's on their Echo. Most of our DAT's are from cord bloods. Have you had any problems with cord blood? Is it worth the time to perform the DAT on the ECHO vs tube method? Considering that cords have Wharton's jelly does this preclude you from running it on the ECHO?

For those of you collecting HPC's using the Spectra AutoPBSC program, what do you have your harvest and chase volumes set at?
We collect autologous HPC's only. After years of doing collections using the MNC program with operator control we went to the Auto PBSC several months ago. As expected, we saw the counts in our collections decrease. For our last patient we set the harvest volume at 5 ml and the chase volume at 6 ml. That seemed to make an improvemnt. Other than cryopreserving, we do not manipulate the HPC's post collection and again, our collections are autologous only. Does anyone with Auto PBSC experience have suggestions on which direction we should go in, volume wise?

Does anyone have a procedure for volume reducing red cell units to a Hct of >85% for PUBS intrauterine exchanges that they would be willing to share?

HELLO ALL, I hope someone is out there. I am a "long time listener", "first time caller". I work at a small, approx 130 bed hospital. We have recently merged with another hospital, but we have a separate computer system, etc, etc. We are on Meditech magic,sans EMR, and really all goes fairly well. However, to come in line with the mothership, our lab supervisor and rn manager want to toss the affixed transfusion card when the unit is emptied. Currently the patient verification and start and stop times are recorded on this and put in the pt's chart. Now they want to use the common form, so verifying info from the hang tag but all documentation done on a transfusion sheet, and just tossing the whole bag and hang tag when tx completed. They both assure me this is acceptable, I just have doubts about tossing this impt document. Am I being BBK paranoid"?

The Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease, which is part of the newly opened Center for Molecular Medicine a -More- 

Canadian researchers are planning to undertake a study to confirm whether the XMRV retrovirus is related to chronic fatigue s -More- 

It's Back! CareerLink's Job Board at the Annual Meeting!
AABB is bringing back CareerLink's job board at the 2010 Annual Meeting & CTTXPO. List your open position online, and then add the option to have it posted on-site for just $50. Resumes are posted for free. Add-on option will be available Sept. 1st. CareerLink brings together great job opportunities and great candidates; your one-stop resource. Click here.

Hospital-acquired infections increased lengths of stay by an average of 19.2 days and added $43,000 in costs, according to an -More- 

An 80-year-old woman in Cork, Ireland, died of hemorrhaging after taking the blood thinner warfarin.  -More- 

A survey of 3,101 hospitals in the U.S.  -More- 

Irish firm Radisens Diagnostics has developed a portable device than can screen for various diseases, including infectious di -More- 

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are collaborating with hospitals in the state on a quality improveme -More- 

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