Wide Range of Topics at Scientific Section Meetings

On Sunday afternoon, AABB members will once again have the opportunity to help shape their association’s scientific and technical initiatives at meetings of the AABB Scientific Section and its subsections. The agenda begins at noon with hour-long open forums of four subsections.

The Technical Practices and Serology Subsection (Room 204B) will address several timely questions, says chair Tony Casina, MT(ASCP)SBB. Among them will be whether compatibility testing is really necessary in unique patient populations when recipients are matched with donors via DNA-based genotyping, and how the FDA’s new draft guidance on computer crossmatching may affect requirements for antibody screen testing.

Slated for discussion by the Nursing Subsection (Room 205A/B) are several “interesting donor center and therapeutic apheresis case studies,” says Martha Wieland, BSN, HP(ASCP), chair of the group. Other topics, she adds, include laboratory and transfusion practices, regulatory guidelines affecting therapeutic apheresis, and evidence-based practice.

The agenda for the Donor Center Subsection meeting (Room 203B) will include discussions of apheresis collections and arm scrubs, component production topics and the implications of transfusion-related acute lung injury, according to subsection chair Jamie S. Scroggins, MT(ASCP).

The Clinical Hemotherapy Subsection (Room 203A) will hear brief progress reports on the Clinical Hemotherapy Web forum, as well as data on existing technical guidance documents and online slide sets. “The remainder of the session,” says subsection chair Mark K. Fung, MD, PhD, “will be devoted to an open discussion of issues and ideas from members.”

SSCC Elections to Be Held
The subsection meetings will be followed at 1:00 pm by the general business meeting of the Scientific Section (1:00 to 2:00 pm in Room 204B), where lunch will be provided courtesy of Baxter HealthCare.

Elections will be held for open positions on the Scientific Section Coordinating Committee (SSCC). Also featured will be an update from Dan Waxman, MD, chair of the SSCC, comments from outgoing AABB president, D. Michael Strong, PhD, MT(ASCP), BCLD(ABB) and an introduction of incoming president, J. Daniel Connor, MM.


Back to Sunday