Blood, Bytes, and Beyond

Insights on Blood Banking, Clinical Informatics, and Medical Education

About

My name is Caitlin Raymond

I’m a transfusion medicine physician with roots in both family medicine and pathology. I write about blood banking, clinical informatics, and what it means to learn, teach, and work in medicine.

All Posts
Blood Banking
Medical Education
Bullet Learning
Clinical Informatics
Platelets
Clinical Pathology

Regulations for Blood Bankers I: Laws vs. Regulations and FDA 101

When I first dipped my toes into cellular therapy regulations, it felt like drowning in alphabet soup: PHS Act, FD&C Act, Title 21 CFR,...

Aug 313 min read

When Red Cells Misbehave: The Curious World of Polyagglutination

Most of the time, our red cells are polite. They keep their surface antigens tucked away, only showing the parts of themselves that...

Aug 282 min read

Rare Blood Group Antigens: A Quick Reference for the Uncommon and Unforgettable

Most days in the blood bank, we’re juggling the usual suspects — ABO, Rh, Kell, Duffy, Kidd, MNS. But every now and then, an antibody...

Aug 272 min read

Transfusion Medicine Quick Guides: Statistics, Quality, and Regulations

One of the challenges in transfusion medicine is that the most important areas of knowledge are not always the most glamorous. Beyond the...

Aug 242 min read

Fresh Frozen Facts: Addendum — The Plasma Family Tree

When I first wrote my Fresh Frozen Facts series, I focused on the workhorses. But plasma isn’t a single product: it’s a whole family,...

Aug 233 min read

Platelet Refractoriness: An Overview

Mahesar A, et al. Platelet refractoriness during bone marrow transplantation: Comparison in aplastic anemia and beta thalassemia major...

Aug 234 min read

On Resilience and the Labor of Continuing

I’ve been taught a lot about resilience. It’s a buzzword now — built into wellness curricula, baked into institutional language, handed...

Jul 215 min read

I Graduated! Looking Back On My Last Year of Training

This week, I graduate from my transfusion medicine fellowship at the NIH. It’s the culmination of a year that was equal parts challenging...

Jul 172 min read

Fresh Frozen Facts, Part IV: Plasma’s Pharmaceutical Cousins

We’ve spent the last three posts talking about plasma as a transfusion product — thawed, typed, delivered in a blood bag, and used (too...

Jul 173 min read

Fresh Frozen Facts, Part III: Before You Order FFP, Ask Yourself…

This is the third installment in my four-part series on plasma. In Part I, we broke down the different types of plasma products — from...

Jul 164 min read

Fresh Frozen Facts, Part II: FFP Is Not a Vitamin

This is the second post in my four-part series on plasma products — what they are, when to use them, and why they’re so often...

Jul 154 min read

Fresh Frozen Facts, Part I: Know Your Plasma

This post kicks off a four-part series on plasma transfusion — starting with the types of plasma products and how they differ. In...

Jul 143 min read

A Bad System Beats a Good Person Every Time

Some of the most meaningful things I built this year weren’t papers or presentations or new protocols. They were systems. Templates....

Jul 112 min read

Floaties, the Deep End, and Becoming a Doctor: You Will Never Feel Ready—Do It Anyway

This week, I handed off the call phone to a new fellow. I walked her through the MTP protocol, gave her a holy book of transfusion...

Jul 92 min read

When the Cure Contributes to the Problem: Iatrogenic Anemia in Critical Care

In the intensive care unit, we often reach for blood tests as our window into the body’s response to critical illness. But what happens...

Jul 44 min read

More Than the Blood Bank: The Transfusion Medicine Physician as a Clinical Consultant

Introduction: When most people—doctors included—think of transfusion medicine, they picture someone approving blood products from a...

Jun 282 min read

Just Passing Through: On Training, Transition, and Everything that Doesn’t Last

In just a few short weeks, I’ll finish fellowship. It’s not my first goodbye — far from it. But it’s the first one that might be my last....

Jun 222 min read

My Cat Has Better Healthcare Than I Do

James is a 20-pound tabby with a big personality and, until recently, a very small urethra. A few weeks ago, he ended up in the emergency...

Jun 203 min read

Making ECP Work for Kids: Practical Guidance for GVHD Treatment

Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is an immunomodulatory therapy increasingly used in the management of acute and chronic...

Jun 144 min read

Vasovagal and Beyond: A Practical Guide to Blood Donor Reactions

Introduction Most blood donors walk out of the collection center with little more than a bandage and a juice box. But for a small subset,...

Jun 94 min read