Managing Platelet Refractoriness: Strategies for Diagnosis and Treatment (25EL-557)

Please note: AABB reserves the right to make updates to this program.

• Educational Track: Quality Education
• Topics: Blood Donation & Collection, Patient Transfusion
• Intended Audience: Directors, Hospital Blood Banks, Hospitals, Medical Directors, Physicians, Residents/Fellows, Technologists, Transfusion Safety Officers
• Teaching Level: Advanced, Intermediate

• Director/Moderator: Laura Staller, MHA, MLS(ASCP)^CM, Manager, Cryopreservation Service, NMDP, Minneapolis, MN
  Speaker: Claudia S. Cohn, MD, PhD, Medical Director, Blood Bank Lab for University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN; Chief Medical Officer, AABB, Bethesda, MD

• Program Description

  A subset of patients with hematologic malignancies develop immune-based refractoriness to platelet transfusions. Diagnosing and dealing with platelet refractoriness is critical for a patient’s survival. This program will explore the basis of refractoriness, standard strategies used, and alternative strategies when nothing else works.

  Learning Objectives

  After participating in this educational activity, participants should be able to:

  • Describe the basis for platelet refractoriness.
  • Discuss standard strategies to overcome platelet refractoriness.
  • Identify alternative strategies when HLA matching does not work.

  Registration

  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

  Continuing Education Credit

  This activity is eligible for one (1) continuing education credit/contact hour for Physicians, Nurses (including California-based nursing professionals through CBRN), 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) and CME Outfitters, LLC. CME Outfitters LLC. 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): CME Outfitters, LLC, designates this live activity for a maximum of one (1) AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM. CME Outfitters, LLC, designates this enduring activity for a maximum of one (1) AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM. 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:

  • Live Activity Program Date: July 23, 2025; Credit Expiration Date: August 23, 2025
  • Enduring Activity Program Dates: July 23, 2025 – July 22, 2028; Credit Expiration Date: July 22, 2028

  Disclosure Declaration

  It is the policy of CME Outfitters, LLC, and the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies to ensure independence, balance, objectivity, and scientific rigor and integrity in all of their 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. CME Outfitters, LLC, 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 CME Outfitters, LLC. personnel are provided at the beginning of the program.

  Faculty Biographies

  Dr. Claudia Cohn earned her PhD in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, her MD from Louisiana State University and completed her Transfusion Medicine fellowship at University of California, San Francisco. She is the Medical Director of the Blood Bank Lab at University of Minnesota, the Chief Medical Officer for the AABB and Chair of the Advisory Committee for Blood and Tissue Safety and Availability for the US Department of Health and Human Services. Her main academic interests include refractory platelet management, hemovigilance and appropriate use of blood components.

  
  

  Laura Staller is a Medical Laboratory Scientist overseeing the cryopreservation service at the NMDP. She began her career in the immunohematology reference laboratory at Bonfils Blood Center in Denver, CO, where she enjoyed solving the always challenging puzzles of reference lab work. As the department training specialist, she trained medical fellows and SBB students on the high complexity testing of the lab. She authored an abstract, published in Transfusion, on the critical role communication plays between medical disciplines resulting from a workup of a Bombay phenotype. Her strong interest in blood centers led to her St. Paul, MN, and the donor testing laboratory at Memorial Blood Centers where she oversaw a team of skilled technicians in a high-volume infectious disease laboratory. She is now focused on cellular therapies at NMDP where she collaborates with various cellular therapy laboratories to extend their cryopreservation and specialty processing capabilities to transplant centers. Laura holds a Master of Healthcare Administration from Ohio University.