RFID Smart Labels and Patient Safety: improving the safety of blood transfusion

Dr. Walter Dzik is Co-Director of the Blood Transfusion Service at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School.

 

Dzik graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University where he studied French poetry. He graduated with honors from the University of Pennyslvania School of Medicine and trained in Internal Medicine and Hematology at Boston University. Following a fellowship in Transfusion Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, Dr Dzik became Director of the Blood Bank and HLA laboratory at the New England Deaconess Hospital.

 

Dr Dzik has over 20 years experience in Transfusion Medicine and Hemostasis as both a laboratory director and a clinical consultant. Dzik provided an early description of the fibrinolytic basis for major hemorrhage during liver transplantation. He has published widely in the area of leukoreduced blood components. Dr Dzik is an Associate Editor of Transfusion and Transfusion Medicine Reviews and an Editor of Rossi's Principles of Transfusion Medicine. He is on the executive committee of the International BEST Research Collaborative and chair the Transfusion Safety research team. Dr Dzik is a former member of the AABB Board of Directors and has served on several AABB Committees.

 

Dr Dzik's primary interest is in clinical transfusion medicine, hemostasis and non-infectious hazards of transfusion. He is Chairman of the NIH Clinical Trials network in Transfusion Medicine and Hemostasis. He is investigating the use of radiofrequency smart tag technology to prevent mis-transfusion errors. He is the recipient of the 2002 Emily Cooley national award and was honored as the recipient of the Daniel D Federman "Outstanding Clinical Educator" award by the graduating class of Harvard Medical School.

The Massachusetts General Hospital is a member of Partners Healthcare. The hospital is a large metropolitan hospital providing advanced care in all specialties of medicine. The hospital has many research programs, one of which centers on new technology designs for the "Operating Room of the Future". The MGH Blood Transfusion Service transfuses over 50,000 blood components annually.