Access to the 2020 AABB Annual Meeting On-Demand sessions expires on December 31, 2022. Each session includes the on-demand recording and a downloadable MP3 audio file. Presentation handouts are not available/included.
Planning Committee Disclosures
AM20-01: The Impact on the Blood Supply of the Historic Mistrust of the Medical Establishment Among the African American Community
Preview Available
Credits: None available.
Historical events and perceptions have fostered mistrust of the medical community among African Americans, which extends to blood donation. African American blood donation rates have been 25-50% lower than that of the white individuals over the last decade. Although this issue has been repeatedly identified, efforts to address the underlying causes of this disparity have not been examined holistically.
Sickle cell disease (SCD) continues to disproportionally impact the African American community occurring in about 1 out of every 365 births (1 in 13 African American babies are born with the sickle cell trait). Although the transfusion needs of patients with sickle cell disease can be met by blood donors of any ethnicity, the best blood product match is from a phenotype-matched donor of the same ethnic group. When there is increased inventory of blood from African American donors, there is a greater likelihood that a phenotype match will be found. Tackling this important issue requires education and guidance to blood collectors to assist them with developing culturally appropriate and compelling community engagement, recruiting, educational materials and an understanding of the need to reach people where they live.
Agenda:
Credits: None available.
New literature to help establish evidence-based practice in pediatric transfusion medicine was just published. The Pediatric Critical Care Transfusion and Anemia Expertise Initiative (TAXI) recently published guidelines to direct red blood cell (RBC) transfusion decision making in critically ill children. Similarly, a recent trial looked at outcomes of neonates receiving platelet transfusions at a threshold of 25x109/L. Lastly, the safety of pathogen reduced platelets in the pediatric population, especially neonates, is area of concern which was recently addressed. The session will review these new publications and provide recommendations for pediatric transfusion medicine practice in the areas of RBC transfusions, platelets transfusions and the considerations for the use of pathogen reduced platelets in this unique population.
AM20-03: iPSCs for the Treatment of Beta Hemoglobinopathies
Preview Available
Credits: None available.
Presented in collaboration with Be The Match BioTherapies®
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), derived from adult cells, have the potential to form any cell type in the body. iPSCs are promising research tools for studying human development, modeling disease and potentially treating patients. Hemoglobinopathies such as sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta thalassemia (BT) are treated with a limited number of pharmacologic options and blood transfusions. The only curative treatment modality is allogeneic transplantation and autologous transplantation with hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC)-based gene therapy but these approaches have limitations and the latter is still in clinical trials. HPC-based approaches require obtaining sufficient numbers of HPCs via a bone marrow harvest or peripheral blood stem cell collection and maintaining the HPCs ex vivo for more than a short period of time for ex vivo manipulation without a loss of engraftment ability which are challenging to do. iPSCs may offer potential benefits over HPC-based approaches. This session will provide information on the current state of iPSCs for the treatment of hemoglobinopathies.
Credits: None available.
Using specific examples, we will begin by discussing personal versus professional use of social media. Next, we will discuss different examples of how educational content (#blooducation) is presented on social media including Twitter Chats and articles, paving the way for inclusive conversations on blood banking and cellular therapy topics. Then, in small groups, we will apply these skills in a friendly competition for the title of “Best Tweetorial” as judged by some of AABB’s social media celebrities.
At the end of the session, we hope that you will take away new technical skills and an increased level of confidence to participate in our upcoming AABB Twitter Chats (#AABBPEPTalk) or journal clubs (#AABBjc), as well as share your own professional experiences, insights and knowledge on Twitter from the bench or beyond.
AM20-05: Setting the Standard for Transfusion Safety: One Center's Experience Achieving Patient Based Hemovigilance
Preview Available
Credits: None available.
Transfusion, the most common inpatient procedure, carries risk of adverse events resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Studies note that the passive reporting system in the United States underreport transfusion reaction rates and only produces population based data. Digitally enabled real time hemovigilance by a team of transfusion specialists allows surveillance for reactions during administration of blood products in our institution. This strategy improves transfusion reaction identification and reporting; it also provides rapid intervention for patients as well as robust data on transfusion reactions.
Our institution transfuses over 192,000 blood components annually. We built a digital health platform that extracts data from the electronic health record (e.g. increase in temperature, drop in blood pressure) and applies a weighted risk score to each patient receiving transfusion based on an algorithm utilizing the Centers for Disease Control hemovigilance protocol. The risk score prioritizes patients for real time chart reviews by transfusion specialist nurses. If a reaction is suspected, the team deploys an advanced practice provider (e.g. nurse practitioner) to evaluate and manage the patient. All touchpoints in this system are captured as discrete data fields for analysis. Using these data, we are building an artificial intelligence powered human/machine hybrid to aid in detecting transfusion reactions that could be implemented in other organizations. Our analyses currently include over 50,000 transfusions. Operationalizing this clinical program was achieved through collaboration between laboratory and nursing.
A patient based surveillance program can improve care beyond transfusion reactions if applied to sepsis early identification with rapid response or patient deterioration management. Our strategy has allowed a comprehensive and catalogued review of the transfusion process in our institution, which allows insight into transfusion practice.
AM20-06: Cellular Therapies for SARS-CoV2
Preview Available
Credits: None available.
Join us as we review the latest cellular therapy advancements for treatment in the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to addressing the use of specific T cells in COVID-19 treatment, faculty will also discuss the importance of missing imputation for single cell sequencing (MISC) in COVID-19 analysis.
Learning Objectives:
AM20-07: Wizardry School of Antigens and Antibodies
Preview Available
Credits: None available.
AABB’s Wizardry School of Antigens and Antibodies is back for its fifth year classes. Medical Laboratory Scientists/Technologists and physicians will be challenged to demonstrate their blood bank wizarding skills in interactive case studies.
Students will be presented with pretransfusion/prenatal test scenarios to practice their antibody identification magic, receive problem solving approaches from Wizardry School faculty, and learn serologic practices from fellow blood bank professionals as all witches and wizards are encouraged to share their spells and potions using interactive audience response. “Graduate” from the fifth school year with new and/or refreshed serological knowledge.
Credits: None available.
Oxygen (O2) homeostasis is critically intertwined with erythropoietic response in blood loss and anemia and the hormones that modulate iron mobilization and RBC production are intriguing markers for the monitoring of transfusion effectiveness in acute and chronic settings. Further, minimally invasive O2 measurements offer a greater understanding of tissue specific adaptation to anemia and response to transfusion. The speakers will guide the audience through physiological adaptive responses to anemia, novel modalities to assess oxygen hemostasis and imbalance and considerations for clinically feasible application toward optimizing transfusion efficacy.
AM20-09: From ABO Blood Group Determination to Immune Tolerance Induction: What Is the Role of the Human Gut Microbiome?
Preview Available
Credits: None available.
Presented in collaboration with Be The Match BioTherapies®
The session will review the current understanding of the role of the intestinal microbiota in modeling the ABO phenotype and some important immune functions. Microorganisms from the gut flora may produce enzymes such as glycosidases that cleave the A and B antigens which could be applied to convert to type O blood. Gut microflora may also have important function in modulating the immune system and determine patient outcome during organ and cell transplantation rejection and/or graft versus host disease.
AM20-10: Vector Borne Pathogens in Transfusion Medicine
Preview Available
Credits: None available.
What is new about this topic: We will identify and discuss some emerging and under-studied pathogens and their potential impacts on transfusion medicine and blood banking. We will look at factors that might help blood operators move on from a decreasing threat.
Background: Emerging pathogens are infectious diseases which newly appear in a population or previously existed but now have an increased incidence or wider geographic range. As climate change continues and vector distributions change, blood operators will need to respond to changing risks of infections in donor populations. In other scenarios, new agents may arise and expand and then regress or “submerge” to the point that they have reduced relevance. Agents of interest could include Eastern Equine Encephalitis, underappreciated species of Babesia or filarial worms and Zika virus. In this changing landscape, blood operators need to become more agile as threats change and new ones emerge. This agility will enable blood operators to; identify and estimate the risks of these agents to the blood supply; reallocate resources to new risks and avoid unnecessary donor deferrals.
Purpose: This session will; 1) pose key questions about participants views of emerging pathogens and their risks to the blood supply, 2) Identify known information about some potentially new threats, 3) compare risk mitigation strategies and decision-making approaches that could be applied to each of the identified agents, 5) engage participants on their concerns about the different emerging and “submerging” pathogens.
Faculty:
