How has the e-Network Forum been helpful to colleagues in transfusion medicine?

A colleague in Palo Alto (who teaches at Stanford) reports that he relies greatly on CBBSweb , especially the e-Network Forum, in his teaching of residents on the Transfusion Service at Stanford Medical Center. Several transfusion service medical directors have stated that they use the discussions in the e-Network for their Transfusion Committee meetings or resident teaching. Some inspectors have said they use some of the ideas discussed by the network as talking points during inspections. The Palo Alto physician wonders how others use or benefit from the e-network forum, and invites e-Network forum colleagues to share their experiences with the network.

The following responses have been received.

1. A transfusion medicine physician in New York reports that he has used postings from this network for both personal "CME", guidance in practice, and resident training. For example, he has no personal clinical experience with most of the new anti-platelet drugs like clopidogrel and the GPIIB/IIIA inhibitors. The discussion of these drugs and managing patients receiving them through the CBBS network has been of great assistance and a great convenience. Communication is good.

ADDENDA Jan. 27, 2003

2. Dr. Ted Eastland at University of Minnesota Medical School (attribution used with permission) reports having benefitted in the following ways:
   • Helped faculty learn 'a thing or two'
   • Used to teach residents and transfusion medicine fellows
   • Useful more than once by blood bank management staff to help with decisions to change a blood bank procedure and/or transfusion guideline; it alerted them to a practice used in North Carolina that they adopted
   • Provided data for weekly blood bank case conference
   • Used by blood bank lab managers in their considerations several times
   • Used to prepare for Transfusion Committee and used as a handout once
   • Probably most importantly it has served as a frequently available forum for blood bankers at their institution to learn from each other. This type of interaction now occurs more often than before, which was only once a year in the halls and at private dinners at AABB meetings.

ADDENDA Jan. 28, 2003

3. A colleague in Australia reports that he finds the e-Network Forum to be very useful when dealing with both laboratory and clinical aspects of transfusion practice. He always recommends it highly to colleagues because it deals with important issues both at an operational level in the hospital blood bank, and across the whole speciality of transfusion medicine. It also presents the latest from the literature, deals with difficult issues, and is a very valuable education tool for everyone involved in this discipline.
   
   
4. A colleague in Saudi Arabia wrote that he, like the other commentators, has found the case presentations very useful and he intends to incorporate these regularly into staff meetings to support their local CME.

ADDENDA Jan. 30, 2003

5. A colleague in Des Moines reports that for them, the CBBS e-Network is an EXCELLENT source of educational information! They have used information for both tech and nursing education. "It's great to know what experts in the field are doing and to know that we all share similar challenges and frustrations. Topics have inspired discussions with our pathologist and staff, leading to policy and procedural changes based on information shared and presented on this site."
   
   
6. A transfusion medicine physician in Cleveland who discovered the answers to some practical issues reports that "If I had paid closer attention to the information on your website, I would have been three weeks ahead of the game."

ADDENDA Feb. 2, 2003

7. A member of the Armed Forces comments: "The e-Network Forum has been very helpful with providing in real time the most recent up-to-date information on regulatory changes and events. The forum also provides a means to discuss treatments, new advances, regulations, most of all outstanding medical education for all. Thanks for, in my opinion, the most well-run and organized web forum for transfusion medicine".

ADDENDA Feb. 4, 2003

8. A blood banker in Saint Louis reports that the e-Network Forum is useful because it allows her and her staff to follow the development of each topic as if they were at the conference table together listening to multiple points of view. She especially appreciates the links to applicable source information from government, professional organizations, and industry on reported topics.

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Submit comments to the e-Network Forum at enetworkforum@cbbsweb.org

Ira A. Shulman, MD
CBBS e-Network Forum Senior Editor & Moderator

W. Tait Stevens, MD
CBBS e-Network Forum Editor & Moderator

Elizabeth M. St. Lezin, MD
CBBS e-Network Forum Associate Editor & Moderator