Please note: AABB reserves the right to make updates to this program.
Wednesday, July 21, 2027
2:00 – 3:00 PM Eastern Time
Program Number: 27EL-758
Director: Phil Accooe, MBA, MS, MLS(ASCP)ᴄᴍSBBᴄᴍ, CLS, CABP, PMP®, Supervisor, Transfusion Service Laboratory, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Service, VA Long Beach Healthcare System, Long Beach, CA; Chair, AABB RISE Committee
Moderator: To be announced
Speaker: Courtney K. Hopkins, DO, Vice President, Corporate Medical Director, Vitalant
Early access to blood products for patients in hemorrhagic shock improves survival, yet access to prehospital transfusion in the United States remains highly uneven. Many EMS agencies—particularly rural, non–hospital owned, and resource limited systems-face structural, regulatory, logistical, and financial barriers that limit their ability to provide blood in the prehospital setting, despite growing clinical evidence and the release of the AABB Standards for Emergency Prehospital and Scheduled Out of Hospital Transfusions.
This eCast will examine equity of access to prehospital transfusion as a patient safety and public health issue, with particular emphasis on the roles blood centers, hospitals, and EMS play in enabling equitable access across diverse systems. Blood centers contribute expertise in donor recruitment, product availability, inventory planning, logistics, quality, and distribution, while hospitals and EMS agencies may assume different clinical, operational, and oversight responsibilities. The program will explore how clearer expectations, collaborative planning, and defined communication pathways can support safe and sustainable implementation.
Real world examples from multijurisdictional initiatives will be used to illustrate how blood centers, hospitals, and EMS agencies can collaboratively address "blood deserts" in communities, especially rural communities. These initiatives leverage geospatial analysis and regional blood sharing strategies to decrease time from injury to transfusion and expand availability of blood products in the prehospital phase of trauma care.
Speakers will explore how geography, EMS governance models, funding structures, and regional trauma system design influence access to prehospital transfusion, and how blood center and hospital supported strategies can reduce these barriers while maintaining safety, quality, and compliance with AABB standards. Emphasis will be placed on scalable, sustainable approaches that strengthen coordination across systems of care, minimize waste, support data driven decision making, and reduce preventable deaths from hemorrhage without increasing operational burden.
After participating in this educational activity, participants should be able to:
Registration includes access to both the live and on-demand version of this eCast.
If you are a facility interested in participating in this eCast, simply complete the Group Viewing registration form and AABB will provide detailed instructions to share with your team approximately one week prior to the live program (each team member to register for the program utilizing a promocode). For single viewers, simply click on the Register button below to register.
Please note: registration for the live eCast will close 1 hour prior to the eCast start time. If you register after this time, you will receive access to the on-demand eCast when it is available.
| Single Viewer | Register |
| Group Viewing | Register |
This activity is eligible for one (1.0) continuing education credit/contact hour for Physicians, California Nurses, California Lab Personnel, Florida Lab Personnel and General Participation credit. AABB reserves the right to reduce or increase the number of credits granted based on the final activity duration. For more information on each credit type please visit our Continuing Education Credits webpage.
There is no financial support for this activity.
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB), which is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
Physicians (ACCME): AABB designates this live activity for a maximum of one (1.0) AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM. AABB designates this enduring activity for a maximum of one (1.0) AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Claiming Credit
Live Activity - Upon completion of the live activity, you will receive instructions to complete your evaluation, which is necessary to claim credit and receive your certificate of attendance/completion (credit must be claimed by the date provided in the instructions). The evaluation can be found by logging into the AABB Education Platform.
Enduring Activity - Once the enduring (on-demand) program is available, you will receive instructions to access the AABB Education Platform. Upon completion of viewing the enduring activity, you will need to complete the evaluation, which is necessary to claim credit and receive your certificate of completion (credit must be claimed by the date provided in the AABB Education Platform).
Program & Credit Expiration Dates:
Disclosure Declaration
It is the policy of the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies to ensure independence, balance, objectivity, and scientific rigor and integrity in all of its CE activities. Faculty must disclose to the participants any relationships with commercial companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. AABB has evaluated, identified, and mitigated any potential conflicts of interest through a rigorous content validation procedure, use of evidence-based data/research, and a multidisciplinary peer review process. The following information is for participant information only. It is not assumed that the presence of such relationships will have a negative impact on the presentations.
Disclosures for the planners of this event can be found here. Disclosures for the program faculty, peer reviewers, and AABB personnel are provided at the beginning of the program.
Phil Accooe, MBA, MS, MLS(ASCP)CMSBBCM, CLS, CABP, PMP® was appointed as a Supervisory Clinical Laboratory Scientist within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in February 2016. He is stationed at the VA Long Beach (VALB) Healthcare System as the facility's Transfusion Service Supervisor. He serves as an educator, document control administrator, and purchase card holder for Pathology & Laboratory medicine Service. Additionally, Phil chairs AABB's RISE committee.
Courtney Hopkins, DO is a Clinical Pathologist and Transfusion Medicine physician, currently serving as the Vice President, Corporate Medical Affairs at Vitalant overseeing the Vitalant regional and corporate physicians. Prior to her nine-year tenure at Vitalant, she spent 7 years with the American Red Cross, where she held the role of CMO for the East Division. Dr. Hopkins has been an active contributor to her field, participating in various committees, including the AABB Clinical Transfusion Medicine Committee, AABB Donor Health and Safety Committee, AABB COI Task Force, and AABB Standards for Transfusion Committee. She also currently serves on both the AABB TTD, AABB Donor Hemovigilance, and AABB Out of Hospital and Prehospital Standards Committee. Furthermore, she has publications in the areas of transfusion service and donor center medicine.
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