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Blood Works: An Owner's Guide

What Every Person Needs to Know BEFORE They Are a Patient

Published by City Point Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
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About The Book

Much has been published on heart health, kidney health, and gut health. But how many of us are aware of our blood health? Is your blood as healthy as it should be? How would you even know? Blood Works is a fascinating new blood owners’ guide to help you care for the health of your most precious fluid—your blood.

About 2 billion people globally are anemic, and almost as many suffer from iron deficiency without anemia. Many don’t even know they have it, just feeling tired, lethargic, and “foggy-headed.” Sound familiar? Over 600 million more suffer from acute or sometimes unrecognized chronic blood loss from causes such as heavy menstrual bleeding, obstetric hemorrhage, gastrointestinal bleeding, surgery, and trauma. Anemia, iron deficiency, and bleeding are signs of “blood failure” and have major negative health effects. Blood Works, with contributions from 48 leading international medical experts, is a must have book for all who want to look after their blood health.

Your blood is the essential fluid that keeps you alive. Yet, while many of us know our cholesterol level and blood pressure, few of us are aware of our blood count. What we don’t know can affect our everyday quality of life and put us at risk if we have bleeding, an injury, or require hospitalization.

Blood, and the vessels that contain it, make up the largest organ system in the body. Its balance and health must be maintained. For many decades, the treatment of first resort for anemia and blood loss has been blood transfusion, which is essentially a “liquid organ” transplant from another person. In heart failure or kidney failure, organ transplantation is not first-line treatment. In blood failure, blood “transplantation” should not be the first thing we reach for. Since the 1990s, scientific research has shown that the common use of blood transfusion is not the most effective treatment in many medical situations. It has been identified as one of the most overused treatments in modern medicine, costing billions of dollars, while causing changes in the recipient’s immune system that may increase the risk of complications and death. In October 2021, the World Health Organization called for the urgent global implementation of Patient Blood Management (PBM), stating “our own blood is still the best thing to have in our veins.”

Blood Works is one of the most exciting books on blood health you will read. The book zooms in on why medical experts from around the world now recognize the need for fundamental change in the way a patient’s blood is managed. Known as PBM, Patient Blood Management places the person receiving treatment at the center of decisions involving their lifeblood. Its aim is to improve general health and treatment outcomes by managing and preserving a patient’s own blood while empowering them to share in making decisions.

Meticulously researched and referenced, masterfully illustrated, and featuring personal stories from patients and their families, Blood Works is a compelling read. It will have a profound impact on your health and the health of your loved ones and is an invaluable resource for health care professionals.

Excerpt

Contributors

Professor Michael Auerbach MD FACP, Georgetown University School of Medicine, USA

Dr Ivo Beverina MD, Legnano General Hospital, Italy

Dr Elvira Bisbe MD PhD, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Spain 

Professor Neil Blumberg MD, University of Rochester Medical Center, USA

Professor Matteo Bolcato MD, University of Padua, Italy

Dr Roger Browning MBChB (Otago) MCR (UWA) FANZCA, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Australia

Professor Ángel Augusto Pérez Calatayud, University of Mexico and General Hospital of Mexico Dr Eduardo Liceaga, Mexico

Alana Delaforce BN GCertPeriopN MN PhD(Cand) MACORN MANZSBT AFHEA, Mater Health, Australia 

Dr Wayne B Dyer PhD, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, Australia

Professor Wendy N Erber MBBS (Syd) MD (Syd) DPhil (Oxf) PhD (Camb) FRCPA FRCPath FAHMS, The University of Western Australia, Australia

Professor Jochen Erhard MD Dr Med, Klinikum-Niederrhein, Germany

Dr Manuel Estioko MD, Transfusion Free Medicine and Surgery Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, USA

Professor David Faraoni MD, Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, USA 

Associate Professor Shannon L Farmer DHSc, The University of Western Australia and Royal Perth Hospital, Australia

Professor Patricia Ford MD, Pennsylvania Hospital, USA

Dr Arnold Friedman MD, Maimonides Medical Center, USA

Professor Bernd Froessler MD PhD FANZCA, Lyell McEwin Hospital and University of Adelaide, Australia

Dr Ian Gilfillan MBChB FRCS(Ed) & C/Th & DMI FRACS , Fiona Stanley Hospital, Australia

Dr Hans Gombotz MD, General Hospital Linz, Austria

Associate Professor Susan Goobie MD FRCPC, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA

Dr Irwin Gross MD FCAP, Eastern Maine Medical Center, USA

Professor Jeffrey M Hamdorf MBBS PhD FRACS AM, The University of Western Australia, Australia

Professor Nabil E Hassan MD, Children’s Hospital and University of Illinois, USA

Associate Professor Joanna M Heal MBBS MRCP, University of Rochester Medical Center, USA

Professor Axel Hofmann Dr rer Medic ME, The University of Western Australia and University of Zurich, Switzerland

Professor James P Isbister MBBS BSc(med) FRACP FRCPA, Sydney Medical School, Australia

Professor Nicolas Jabbour MD, University of Massachusetts Medical School-Baystate, USA

Dr Pradeep Jayasuriya MBBS, M Hlth Serv Man, WA Iron Centre, Australia

Professor Hongwen Ji MD PhD, Fuwai Hospital and Peking Union Medical College, China

Dr Kasandji Freddy Kabambi MD FCA(SA) Mmed(anesth)
Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital and Walter Sisulu University, South Africa

Professor Young-Woo Kim MD PhD FRCS, National Cancer Center, Korea

Professor Michael F Leahy MBChB FRACP FRCP FRCPath, Royal Perth Hospital and The University of Western Australia, Australia

Mr Matthias Lucas MD, Helios Klinikum, Germany

Dr Hamish Mace MBChB (Otago) FANZCA DRANZCOG, Fiona Stanley Hospital and The University of Western Australia, Australia

Associate Professor Rudolf Mair MD, Kepler University Hospital, Austria

Professor Nolan McDonnell BHB MBChB FANZCA MClinRes Grad Dip Clinical , King Edward Memorial Hospital and The University of Western Australia, Australia

Dr Julie McMorrow PharmD FPS , Royal Perth Hospital, Australia

Professor Lena Napolitano MD FACS FCCP MCCM, University of Michigan Health System and University Hospital, USA

Sherri Ozawa RN, Englewood Health, USA

Dr Petra Seeber MD, Helios Klinikum, Germany

Professor Aryeh Shander MD FCCM FCCP FASA, Englewood Health and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA

Professor Donat R Spahn MD, University and Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland

Professor Bruce Spiess MD FAHA, University of Florida College of Medicine, USA

Dr Jackie Thomson MD, South African National Blood Service, South Africa

Mr Kevin Trentino MPH PhD, East Metropolitan Health Service and The University of Western Australia, Australia 

Professor Fiona M Wood FRACS AM , Fiona Stanley Hospital, Perth Children’s Hospital and The University of Western Australia, Australia
 
Associate Professor Michael Wren MBBS FRACS, The University of Notre Dame and Curtin University, Australia

Professor Christoph A Zenger LL.M. (Harvard), University of Bern, Switzerland
 

About The Authors

Dr. Shannon L. Farmer, DHSc, is an academic researcher and a consultant and pioneer in Patient Blood Management, having been in the field for over 30 years. He is a Doctor of Health Science and has appointments as Adjunct Associate Professor, Discipline of Surgery, Medical School, The University of Western Australia, and Honorary Research Fellow in Haematology, Department of Haematology, Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia. He is a medical journal peer-reviewer, and serves on several PBM committees and guidelines expert working groups. In 2021 he was invited to serve on the World Health Organization External Working Group to develop a WHO Policy Brief and Guidelines for the implementation of PBM. He has published numerous peer-reviewed research papers, is a regularly invited lecturer, and has consulted to national and international health authorities. In 2014 he received the Dr Kathleen J Sazama Award (USA) “For Outstanding Leadership in Advancing Patient Rights and Patient Blood Management.”

Dr. Irwin Gross, M.D. FCAP, is former Chief of Pathology at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor Maine, U.S.A. Dr. Gross was also Director of Transfusion Services and the Coagulation Laboratory at Eastern Maine Medical from 1987 through 2015. Dr. Gross’ interest in patient blood management began at the bedside of bleeding patients as he consulted with surgeons and intensive care specialists in his hospital. New ideas aren’t of much value unless you put them to use, so he founded the Eastern Maine Medical Center PBM Program in 2006 and served as Medical Director until 2015. As a member of the Board of the Society for Advancement of Patient Blood Management, he chaired the SABM Standards Committee. Dr. Gross is a Scientific Associate of the International Foundation for Patient Blood Management, and currently serves as Co-Chair of a World Health Organization (WHO) committee charged with developing international Guidelines for the implementation of PBM. In 2019, he received the Dr. Kathleen J Sazama Award (USA) “For Outstanding Leadership in Advancing Patient Rights and Patient Blood Management.”

Dr. Aryeh Shander, M.D., FCCM, FCCP, FASA is Emeritus Chair, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine, Pain Management and Hyperbaric Medicine at Englewood Hospital & Medical Center in Englewood, NJ. He is also Adjunct Clinical Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Medicine and Surgery at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as well as Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in NJ. He is the Executive Medical Director of The Institute for Patient Blood Management and Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Englewood Hospital, and Past -President of the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management. He serves as the director for education for TeamHealth. Dr. Shander lectures nationally and internationally on a variety of topics related to anesthesiology, critical care medicine, and patient blood management and his publications have appeared in several prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals.

Product Details

  • Publisher: City Point Press (May 2, 2023)
  • Length: 456 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781947951563

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