Hello all, I joined this site not too long ago and I wish I had find it sooner. Congratulations to those running the site and all the members for their profesionalism and sharing their experiences.

I am a current SBB student in the US. I ran out of ideas for my SBB project and was wondering if anyone could share some ideas.

Thank you very much.

PS: Happy New Year !

I'll leave this to my friends and colleagues in North America, as I am not certain at what level the SBB is pitched. Is it BSc, MSc, PhD, or something else?

Once I know this, I'll try to suggest a few things.

Malcolm,

It appears to be equivalent to the IBMS Specialist / expert practice diplomas. Certainly post graduate level but below PhD. as many of the advertised courses can award credits to MSc degrees.

Malcolm,

It appears to be equivalent to the IBMS Specialist / expert practice diplomas. Certainly post graduate level but below PhD. as many of the advertised courses can award credits to MSc degrees.

Thanks for that bmsjbatt. That gives me a good clue as to where to put the "level of thinking" on my part.

alphahelix0508, is there a particular area of blood transfusion/transfusion science/red cell immunohaematology/etc in which you are interested or have greater expertise than in others?

I'll leave this to my friends and colleagues in North America, as I am not certain at what level the SBB is pitched. Is it BSc, MSc, PhD, or something else?

Once I know this, I'll try to suggest a few things.

SBB can be achieved at the Bachelors level by challenging the exam from ASCP (American Society of Clinical Pathologist). Any registered Technologist having met the time in service requirement can challenge the exam. Alternatively, a registered Technologist may complete a SBB program offered at a University that MAY lead to a Masters degree. Some regional donor centers and Universities partner and offer a program that prepares the Technologist to challenge the SBB exam without conferring the degree.

Hope that clarifies.

I visited the IBMS website and I think is very similar to the SBB program in the US. Although my institution does not grant me a Master's degree it is considered graduate work-level. Some institution will partner and grant you a Master's degree but that comes at a slightly higher price

I am open to any suggestions or ideas at this level.

Thank you very much all!

Are you interested in blood center or transfusion service (or ref lab) oriented projects? My SBB project was measuring ADAMTS13 activity in several types of plasma products at thaw and after 5 days at 1-6°. A TS-based friends project involved evaluating their practice of doing concurrent saline and enzyme panels for all newly positive antibody screens. Another colleague went through the reference lab's frozen autoantibody specimens and re-tested many samples hoping to find drug dependent antibodies masquerading as autoantibodies.

I guess my advice is to decide which area of Transfusion Medicine you want to focus on and try to find a worthwhile project there, preferably something worth publishing (at least as an abstract) when you're finished. While I expect you have, if you haven't yet you should talk to a medical director or member of management in the area you're interested in and see if they have any questions they'd like answered (then you have a useful project)

And if you're considering it, I've found it worthwhile to have completed the second half of the MS program, but it does cost more than an SBB program.

Good luck!

A good project would be to challenge the long-standing practice of screening(ABO, Rh and DAT) for HDF/N on every newborn. Start from the endpoint, i.e., which newborns are identified for therapeutic intervention. Is therapy initiated based on the results of HDF/N screening tests. If not, why not. Are there infants treated for hyperbilirubinemia who are DAT negative and ABO compatible with mom? Does the DAT reliably predict which infants will require treatment? If not , then why do a DAT routinely on every newborn?. Just my rant....

Ha,ha, thanks Dasket

Edited January 7, 201312 yr by alphahelix0508

Thank you for your post, I am definitely looking forward to complete a MS program and would like to work on a project worth publishing.

What kind of projects have been done in the past?

perhaps designing some flow charts for hospitals or MLS programs to use for trouble shooting positive antibody screen or ABO discrepancies

That sounds a good idea too.

How about neutralizing SDa's using guinea pig urine?

The only thing I would say about that MAGNUM is that 1) it has been done and is well-known and 2) how are you going to get hold of sufficient sources of anti-Sda? I'm not saying it's a bad idea, all I am saying is that it would be difficult to do (because of the paucity of the anti-Sda) and how are you going to come up with anything new on the subject?

I did my paper on the differing protocols used in transfusing patients with sickle cell disease.

Well done Carrie - an interesting subject.

How about a nationwide survey gathering information on how hospitals prepare aliquots for neonatal transfusion. Do they have an anticoagulant preference? Do they use a dedicated unit or select only fresh blood? Do they issue the unit in a syringe or in a pedi-bag? Are the units CMV negative or leukoreduced? Practice seems to so varied that it would be nice to get an overview and perhaps best practice ideas.