Transfusion Medicine - Fact And Fiction

The provocative title stems from the recent International Blood Transfusion Symposium in Groningen, The Netherlands held under the auspicies of the World Health Organization (WHO), International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) and Council of Europe (CoE). Transfusion medicine is a new discipline which has a wide remit. As defined recently, transfusion medicine deals with that part of the healthcare system which undertakes appropriate provision and use of human blood resources; transfusion practice is therefore a collective activity linking the blood donor with the patient. Transfusion medicine occupies areas in which it is deemed to be important or even essential that medical practitioners contribute to this bridging process. The broad issues and complex practices are presented in the masterly Introduction by the WHO's Assistant Director General with emphasis on education and multidisciplinary facets involving transfusion medicine. The challenging subjects are dealt in great details with a wealth of personal experience by 24 experts from the U.K., France, The Netherlands, U.S.A., Australia, Germany, Sweden, WHO and the Council of Europe. This is a comprehensive yet concise state of the art presentation involving donor and delivery system, ethics and legal elements, effects of modern techniques, importance of management and the future directions in this new economic environment. The book has been divided into four sections which discuss both the facts and the fiction.