Academic education in transfusion medicine in China

The need for physicians and technical consultants specialized in transfusion is huge in nearly twenty thousand hospitals and five hundred blood services in China. However, the progress made in academic education in transfusion medicine as a specialty has been relatively slow in China. During the past decade, approximately 1260 undergraduates with BSc and only 10 postgraduates with MSc or PhD in transfusion medicine graduated from Chinese medical colleges or universities. Currently, a few medical universities are engaged in providing a diploma in transfusion medicine as a stand‐alone medical specialty for Chinese undergraduate or postgraduate. Generally, two types of transfusion medicine (TM) training programmes are offered in medical universities. The programme developed by three universities is within the general context of laboratory medicine and awards a BSc. A single university organized a programme integrated within clinical medicine and awards bachelor degree in medicine. The postgraduate training programme available in a few universities is conducted as a self‐designated discipline of transfusion medicine, which is listed below the first grade of clinical medicine. Here, we summarize the achievements on TM academic education and the difficulties faced currently in those universities including the Southern Medical University in Guangzhou where it was implemented for the past 10 years. We will further discuss future developments in this specialty still in infancy.
Source: ISBT Science Series - Category: Hematology Authors: Tags: Congress Review Source Type: research