NEWS & NOTES

Educational Opportunities Available for Clients

Bonfils offers educational opportunities to our clients including Transfusion Medicine (TM) conferences with series topics ranging from clinical case studies to donor injury as well as a variety of special topics. The TM conferences are held Wednesdays from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at Bonfils' Lowry headquarters. Bonfils also secures teleconferences organized by industry partners for the blood banking community which are held bimonthly at our headquarter facility. Hospital partners may attend these conferences free of charge.

Remaining 2007 Teleconference Schedule:

Wednesday, Oct. 12 – 11 a.m. to noon

Colorado Association for Continuing Medical Laboratory Education Teleconference: Changing Challenges in Diagnostic Virology

Wednesday, Dec. 12 – noon to 1:30 p.m.

AABB Teleconference: Deviation Management

To register, please call 303.363.2424 or email events@bonfils.org.

New Vice President and Transfusion Medicine Fellow Join Staff

Mark Allen recently joined Bonfils Blood Center as vice president of quality assurance and regulatory affairs. Prior to joining Bonfils, Allen was the director of quality assurance and regulatory affairs for NetRegulus, Inc. in Denver where he was responsible for developing quality, regulatory and clinical software applications for the life sciences. Allen has also worked as a regulatory/quality consultant for many top medical device firms in addition to operating his own medical device company. 

Bonfils also selected its new Transfusion Medicine Fellow Roberto Gianani, MD, a native of Rome, in July. During his one-year fellowship with Bonfils, Dr. Gianani will receive hands-on practical and clinical laboratory training in the areas of transfusion medicine and blood banking which will include rotations both in the blood center and at four of Bonfils' partner hospitals in the Denver Metro area.

For more information about Allen and Dr. Gianani please visit the Leadership section  of our new Web site.

Bonfils’ Associate Medical Director Talks TRALI Internationally

Dr. Christopher Silliman has been invited to share his expertise on transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) at the German Society for Transfusion Medicine in Lake Constance, Germany this September and at the HAA 2007 Annual Scientific Meeting in Brisbane, Australia in October at which he will give two talks and will also teach a Master Class on modeling TRALI both in vivo and in vitro. Dr. Silliman will also be a debate panelist at the TRALI – Pathogenesis, Risk Management and Measures for Prevention symposium in Mainz, Germany this November.

West Nile Virus (WNV) Update

As of Aug. 28, 2007 Bonfils Blood Center has identified 18 positive WNV cases from our blood donors. In alignment with the AABB recommendations, we have implemented IDT NAT testing on four separate occasions in three different counties: Larimer, Weld and Denver.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Kadi Schroeder, director of ancillary services at 303.363.2446.

Bonfils to Present Poster at AABB Annual Conference
Members of Bonfils’ Transfusion Medicine department will present a poster and abstract titled, “The K_o Phenotype: Are We Doing Enough To Identify These Individuals?” at the AABB Annual Conference this October.

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