How to improve transfusion medicine. A treating physician's perspective.

As transfusion medicine becomes more complex, cooperative strategies are gaining increasing importance in relaying information to the treating physician and in incorporating the treating physician into the education and quality control processes. The broad domain of transfusion medicine is illustrated by the variety of disciplines involved in defining the use of products such as fresh frozen plasma and the newly released solvent-detergent-treated plasma, fibrin glue and highly purified fibrin sealant, and leukoreduced and irradiated blood products. Cooperative efforts among physicians and other personnel of multiple disciplines are essential to ensure appropriate use and continuous evaluation of blood products.