Dr. Ronald Jackups
Dr. Ronald Jackups with Patrick Clark of FOX 2-CW11
story by Susan Gallagher
The transfusion of blood and blood components is a bit of an orphan in pathology. But as soon as he began his residency, Dr. Ronald Jackups was fascinated by the science of blood.
Growing up in the Cincinnati area with a dad who is an electrical engineer and a mother who holds a master’s degree in library science, Dr. Jackups was interested in combining his love for math, research and science with a career that involved helping people.
His bachelor’s degree was from Washington University in St. Louis, and he earned a combined medical degree and PhD, from the University of Illinois-Chicago.
In 2008, Dr. Jackups returned to St. Louis and Washington University for his pathology residency, where on his first rotation he discovered transfusion medicine.
“I found the field to be an amazing combination of laboratory science and patient care,” he said. “Pathologists typically are not deeply engaged in patient care.”
As a specialist in pediatric care, Dr. Jackups has treated multiple children with sickle cell anemia—a debilitating disease that causes crescent or sickle-shaped red blood cells. These cells cannot easily travel through the blood vessels. In the past, the painful disease meant early deaths for many children, especially African Americans and Hispanic Americans.
But Dr. Jackups has watched his patients grow up and live well beyond those who had the disease in earlier days because of treatments like apheresis, which removes and replaces a patient's red blood cells with healthy red blood cells provided by blood donors.
To counteract autoimmune blood-related, kidney, rheumatic and neurological diseases, he also treats patients by removing plasma that has abnormal substances with substitutes from blood donors. Called Therapeutic Plasma Exchange, TPE not only relieves symptoms but helps patients better fight these diseases.
“TPE has moved the mortality rate for certain diseases from 90 to 10 percent,” said Dr. Jackups. In fact, in his decade as a clinician, he has not only seen blood transfer therapies expand, but the safety of blood products advance. “Today blood products do not carry diseases as they used to, making their use very safe,” he added.
In addition to practicing transfusion medicine, Dr. Jackups conducts significant research and has earned top awards for his teaching.
As Co-Medical Director of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Hematology Lab and as Director of the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Blood Bank, he also serves as a leading spokesperson in encouraging St. Louisans to donate blood.
In January, the American Red Cross issued a warning that the nation—and the St. Louis region--is facing a blood crisis—the worst shortage in more than a decade.
Dr. Jackups cites a perfect storm of factors behind this: The pandemic kept donors at home and reduced the number of volunteers and staff available to run blood drives.
“Early on, COVID-19 caused hospitals to defer all elective surgeries. So, we were able to manage our supply, but when these surgeries began again, the shortage became severe,” Dr. Jackups said.
He added that hospital staffs are faced with real challenges in planning for immediate and future blood requirements. Dr. Jackups earned his Ph.D. in bioinformatics--the application of computer technology and multi-dimensional modeling to large sets of biological data. Data analysis and planning is another of his roles. Dr. Jackups is Associate Chief Medical Information Officer for Laboratory Informatics at BJC Healthcare and Program Director for the hospital system’s Clinical Informatics Fellowship.
Clinical informatics is the study of how technology and data analytics can be used to improve patient care. Given the ever-increasing availability of digital patient information from electronic health records, medical images and other sources, providers rely on quality, up-to-date data and technology when assessing patient needs. Clinical informaticists evaluate the efficacy and operation of these systems. Dr. Jackups was very involved in developing the BJC Hospital system that allows patients to securely manage and receive information about their health.
He also uses his data analysis and computer skills to better manage hospital system resources. He cites the example of COVID-19 testing.
“When COVID hit, there was a severe shortage of test kits, so we created an electronic ordering system to make sure that the tests being ordered got to the right people at the right time and were not being used for patients who did not really require testing,” he said. “We were able to manage the supply to make sure tests went to those with the greatest need.”
The management of the region’s blood supply has required the same sort of rigorous analysis. Dr. Jackups says the region is fortunate to have the St. Louis Red Cross Blood and Platelet Donation Center---one of the few in the nation of its size.
“Local hospitals rely on the Red Cross to come through for us in terms of providing sufficient supplies of blood,” he said. “We also rely on citizens throughout the region to support this critical need and to donate blood.”
Eligibility requirements for donating blood
Whole blood donation is the most common type of blood donation, which includes the extraction of red and white blood cells and platelets. The Red Cross describes whole blood as the most flexible type of donation because it can be transfused in its original form or separated for different uses.
Requirements for whole blood donation:
Eligible individuals can donate whole blood every 56 days, up to six times per year.
Other types of donations include Power Red, platelet and plasma donations. Eligibility can be found on the Red Cross website.