While the primary focus of the Southern California Region is providing blood and blood components to save lives, Red Cross Blood Services is a full-service blood organization that does much more than just collect blood. It also works to provide training for health professionals and to advance knowledge in the field of transfusion medicine. Responsibility for this falls to the Education Department under the direction of Community Education Coordinator Thomas Lash and Scientific Director Dr. George Garratty.

The department evolved from an early Specialist in Blood Banking (SBB) program offered by the Region for medical technologist. Today, there are two major educational areas, the Community Education program and the Blood Transfusion Medicine Fellowship Program. They are supported by an instructional media specialist, Norman Morris, and an extensive medical library, maintained by Ann Tunick, Dr. Garratty's administrative assistant. The library is available to all Blood Services employees.

The Community Education program is at least 20 years old and was already established when Dr. Garratty joined the Region in 1978. It has three components, a popular lecture series, nationwide teleconferences, and one-day transfusion medicine seminars; all open to health professionals.

An important function of the Community Education program is opening the doors of the blood center to Elementary and High School students wishing tours of our facility. Staff are also available to come to your school to give talks on American Red Cross Blood Services or matters pertaining to blood transfusion medicine.

Lectures, which are based on SBB requirements and cover all aspects of blood transfusion medicine. The lectures are delivered primarily by Dr. Garratty and other talented regional Red Cross staff, but visiting speakers from regional hospitals augment the program's staff. The lectures are offered weekly on Thursdays and are approved for 2.0 contact hours of continuing education (CE) for California Clinical Laboratory licensees, one of the first programs approved by the state for this purpose.

For those who are unable to attend the weekly lectures, the department offers one-day seminars. Currently, these seminars are held each quarter in Santa Ana California and hosted by Western Medical Center.

Teleconferences, sponsored by the American Association of Blood Banks and the American Society of Clinical Pathology, are scheduled at least once a month, and are presented at the American Red Cross Blood Service facilities in Los Angeles, Santa Ana, and San Diego California simultaneously. The teleconferences feature speakers of national prominence, whose lectures on aspects of transfusion medicine are accompanied by slides projected for attendees as illustration of the talks.

Both the lectures and teleconferences are arranged by Thomas Lash, community education coordinator, who also assists in coordinating the activities for those participating in the fellowship program.

The Blood Transfusion Medicine Fellowship program was established many years ago in cooperation with Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, with two fellows serving six months with Red Cross and six months with the hospital. For the past four years, Red Cross has had a joint program with UCLA Medical Center, as well.

Fellows are usually pathologists who have already completed four to five years of residency and have chosen to specialize in transfusion medicine at a hospital or blood bank. While at Red Cross they are introduced to all aspects of the blood center, including working on special research projects and giving lectures in the Community Education program.

Some graduates of this fellowship program include present and former medical staff of Blood Services: Drs. Arell Shapiro, Joy Fridey, Ben Spindler, Kaaron Benson, Kenneth McMilin and Mary Parlier. Others are now directors of local hospital transfusion services, including Drs. Lauren O'Brien, Tom Collier, Claire Kruppe, Judith Pachciarz and Shirong Wang.