Transfusion Medicine Quick Guides: Statistics, Quality, and Regulations
- caitlinraymondmdphd
- Aug 24
- 2 min read
One of the challenges in transfusion medicine is that the most important areas of knowledge are not always the most glamorous. Beyond the intricacies of blood components, cellular therapies, and patient blood management, transfusion medicine professionals also need a solid foundation in statistics, quality systems, and regulatory frameworks.
These topics often feel scattered — a little bit in textbooks, a little in regulatory documents, a little in accreditation checklists. They are also written in different languages: statistics speaks in sensitivity and specificity, regulations in acronyms and federal code, quality systems in cycles and root cause analyses. For learners, it can feel like stitching together three dialects just to follow one conversation.
To help simplify this, I’ve created the Transfusion Medicine Quick Guides. These are concise, practical summaries designed to:
Bring the key statistical concepts (sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, likelihood ratios, Westgard rules, ROC curves, and how prevalence shapes predictive values) into one place.
Clarify the major quality and regulatory frameworks, including the roles of CLIA, FDA, AABB, CAP, and FACT, as well as quality control vs quality assurance, process improvement tools, and hemovigilance.
Provide a crosswalk of commonly confused terms, such as validation vs verification vs calibration, deviation vs deficiency, and error vs adverse event.
These guides are written to be accessible whether you are:
Preparing for transfusion medicine boards,
Training residents, fellows, or laboratory staff,
Or just refreshing your own memory before an inspection.
📄 Download the complete Transfusion Medicine Quick Guides (PDF) below:
I hope this resource saves you time, provides clarity, and makes the less glamorous but deeply important side of transfusion medicine a little easier to navigate.
📌 Usage & Sharing
This resource is free to use and share for educational purposes. Please credit Blood, Bytes, and Beyond as the source if you distribute it or incorporate it into teaching materials.
