By far the best value to watch all the on-demand educational sessions from the 2024 AABB Annual Meeting and earn continuing education credit. This package includes 103 sessions which are eligible for up to:
If purchasing each session individually the cost is $2,615/$3,140 (member/nonmember). Access is available through December 31, 2026 so purchase this package today.
Residents/Fellows/Students – AABB is pleased to offer a reduced rate of $199. Simply email a signed a letter from your institution/Program Director and/or current student transcript verifying your status to eLearning@aabb.org.
Annual meeting attendees - AABB will extend the discounted price of $259/$309 (member/nonmember) for purchase of this package to continue to earn continuing education credits. Contact eLearning@aabb.org to receive a promocode to use to register (Annual Meeting registration will be verified; daily and virtual registrations not eligible).
Purchase of this package includes the on-demand recording and a downloadable MP3 audio file for each session. Some handouts for some speakers may be available. The SBB/BB Exam Review 2024 on-demand session is not included with this package (sold separately).
Program Offering Disclosures:
Disclosures were obtained from the CME Outfitters, LLC staff: Nothing to disclose. All identified conflicts of interest have been mitigated.
Please note: AABB reserves the right to make updates to this program and the offerings within. This program and the recordings are ©2024 AABB, all rights reserved. Reproducing and/or distributing this program or any material within is prohibited.
CABP CE Eligible
Not every hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patient will be able to find a 10/10 HLA-matched donor, much less the perfect 12/12 matched donor. In these situations, one can turn to the availability of HLA-mismatched stem cell donors, which include haploidentical related donors, mismatched unrelated donors, and mismatched cord blood stem cells. Over time, we have seen increasing advancements in clinical practice that have moved needle in the direction of equivalent or non-inferior outcomes with mismatched stem cell donor options. The downside of seeing this increasing use of HLA-mismatched donors is that we are also encountering with greater frequency the challenge of donor specific HLA-antibodies (DSAs) in the patient, which put the patient at increased risk for delayed engraftment or even engraftment failure, especially when DSAs are present at high titers. Therefore, there is an ongoing exploration of different desensitization strategies targeted at reducing DSAs to clinically useful levels. These include various approaches directed towards decreasing antibody production and removing DSAs already in circulation, and are often used in combination. One strategy that has emerged, and which is relevant to the transfusion medicine community but not yet well known, is the modality of using HLA-typed platelet and/or leukocyte transfusions/infusions to remove DSAs via “in vivo adsorption”. In this session, Dr. Deanna Fang will first present the HLA-related principles behind this technique and provide a review the evidence presented internationally in literature thus far. Then, Dr. Stefan Ciurea, the director of his institution's Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Program, will present on his experience with the first known United States-based published and protocolized practice of incorporating HLA-typed cellular infusions as part of an HSCT patient's desensitization regimen. Dr. Minh-Ha Tran will also be present to share his expertise with this protocol from the transfusion medicine physician's perspective with regards to the logistics of donor collection and product processing and issuance.
Role models and mentors can set the stage for the next generation of Blood Bank/Transfusion Medicine professionals to step up and move our profession forward. In this session, we will examine the benefits of mentoring new employees and students as they begin their careers and throughout the years as they move into various positions. The speaker will share ways that mentoring has shaped her career of almost 50 years, as well as how she, as an educator, has mentored students to grow as laboratory professionals.
Award Citation: In grateful recognition for her strong leadership and influence on the field of blood banking. LeeAnn Walker has dedicated her career to advancing the field and has been a vital leader in providing education to younger generations. She has passionately shared her expertise and enthusiasm with hundreds of students, passing on knowledge and ensuring the future success of the field; many of her students have gone on to have influential careers as well.
In this joint session organized by the Trauma, Hemostasis and Oxygenation Research (THOR) Network and the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB) Collaborative, the latest evidence and expert opinion on emergency transfusion for females of childbearing potential with life-threatening bleeding, prehospital transfusion and emergency preparedness, and international perspectives on hemostatic resuscitation practice will be presented, including an update on the newly developed AABB Standards for Out of Hospital and Prehospital Administration Transfusion Services.
CABP CE Eligible
There are core regulations that the use of human cells and tissues must not introduce communicable disease, either from contamination, cross contamination or mix ups. The FDA has clarified that distributing products with objectionable microorganisms is the spread of communicable disease. There are several approaches to sterility testing that include both USP and automated or Rapid Microbiology assays. A review of updates to Sterility Testing requirements for HCTPs (361s) and Biological Products (351s) for procedures or processes that are designed to ensure product sterility will be reviewed in context to FDA requirements and USP Compendial methods. This session will also review common practices and hurdles for implementing the USP sterility testing requirements for these products that have unique constraints such as short product shelf life and sampling size. The panelists will host a discussion session on the similarities and differences between regulatory requirements found in 21 CFR 211.84 (d) (6), 21 CFR 610.12, 21 CFR 1271.1 (a) and 21 CFR 1271.220. An update on several new USP chapters that have direct impact on biologics if they fall into the category of “short shelf-life products”, will also be provided and include:
The Myocardial and Ischemia Trial (MINT) was published in December 2023. MINT enrolled 3504 patients with acute myocardial infarction and hemoglobin concentration less than 10 g/dL and randomly allocated participants to either a liberal transfusion strategy that required transfusion to maintain hemoglobin concentration greater than or equal 10 g/dL or a restrictive transfusion strategy that permitted transfusion below 8 g/dL and strongly recommended transfusion below 7 g/dL. The investigators concluded “In patients with acute myocardial infarction and anemia, a liberal transfusion strategy did not significantly reduce the risk of recurrent myocardial infarction or death at 30 days. However, potential harms of a restrictive transfusion strategy cannot be excluded.” The clinical implications of this large study continue to be discussed. In addition, this trial data is now being incorporated into meta-analyses together with other trials conducted in the setting of acute myocardial infarction and anemia. Following the successful format of a debate at the 2023 AABB meeting, two speakers will now debate whether anemic patients with acute myocardial infarction should be managed with a liberal or restrictive transfusion strategy, and provide arguments for and against each approach.
CABP CE Eligible
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a beta hemoglobinopathy caused by a single point mutation that causes a chronic debilitating disease characterized by recurrent pain crises and end organ damage. Various treatment modalities are available such as disease modifying drug therapies, red blood cell transfusions, and stem cell transplantation. In December of 2023, the FDA approved two gene therapies, Casgevy and Lyfgenia, that utilize the patient’s own hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) as the starting material for genetic modification and subsequent autologous transplantation. The list price for Lyfgenia is set at $3.1 million, while Casgevy will cost $2.2 million, making gene therapies for sickle cell disease one of the most expensive treatments worldwide. Access to this therapy will become a challenge for a lot of patients in the absence of insurance coverage. The successful management of patients with SCD, however, goes beyond medical treatment. Patients who have adequate emotional, mental, and spiritual support have shown a better quality of life. Individuals with chronic diseases have a higher risk of mental disorders which are exacerbated by social/relationship problems. Patients with SCD with severe depressive symptoms experience poorer pain outcomes, lower quality of life, and increased risk of opioid misuse. Participation in religious practices facilitates coping with a chronic illness such as SCD. It provides social support and hopefulness that can help alleviate depressive symptoms. This education session will focus on advocacy for patients with SCD in the era of gene therapy and discuss the benefits of psychosocial support.
The AABB continues to update and develop clinical transfusion guidelines as new evidence becomes available. In the past year AABB collaborated with international professional societies and relevant experts to develop and update guidelines for platelets and for RBC transfusions in patients undergoing a myocardial infarction. The platelet effort is the first update since AABB and the International Collaboration for Transfusion Medicine Guidelines (ICTMG) published separate guidelines in 2015. The new guidelines discussed in this section were a collaborative effort between the AABB and ICTMG, and also included other international organizations [[International Collaboration for Transfusion Medicine Guidelines (ICTMG), the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT), and others]. The RBC guideline for patients with myocardial infarction (MI) is the first for this patient population.
During this session, we will briefly discuss the place of guidelines as a tool for changing transfusion practice and also review the guideline development process using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology. Next we will provide an overview of the platelet guidelines with updates to recommendations for specific patient populations, including: hypoproliferative thrombocytopenia; procedures; critical illness; cardiac surgery; and intracranial hemorrhage. We will then review the main clinical trials evaluating red blood cell transfusion thresholds in patients with myocardial infarction and present the results of the meta-analysis and summary of findings for critical outcomes. Finally, the provisional language of the new AABB RBC MI guideline will be discussed.
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