Section of Hematology - Clinics and Programs
Clinics
Clinical programs operated by the Section include one of Canada’s largest blood and marrow transplant programs for both allogeneic and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation directed by Dr. James Russell.
Greater than 150 adult patients receive hematopoietic stem cell transplants in Calgary each year. Medical staff for the BMT Program includes 9 Hematologists/Oncologists, 3 clinical associates/ward physicians, 1 advanced practice nurse, as well as dedicated nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, social workers.
The Hematology Tumor Group at the TBCC treats greater than 500 newly diagnosed patients annually, and has a very active Clinical Research Program including multicentre cooperative oncology group studies, industry sponsored clinical trials, local investigator-initiated studies, as well as translational research projects.
In addition to Hematologists, membership of the Hematology Tumor Group include an advanced practice nurse, 3 clinical research coordinators, and 2 clinical research nurses, as well as numerous clinic nurses, 4 hematopathologists, 2 radiation and 1 medical oncologist. Within Benign Hematology, Drs. Graham Pineo and Russell Hull chair Calgary’s Comprehensive Program for the Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism and the Task Force on Diagnostic Algorithms for DVT and PE, which has created an Anticoagulation Computer Order Set for Calgary hospitals. They are leaders in international multicentre randomized clinical trials for thrombosis research. Dr. Man-Chiu Poon is an internationally recognized researcher in the area of hemophilia, and has established the Southern Alberta Rare Blood and Bleeding Disorders Comprehensive Care Program for adults. This program will likely expand to include hemoglobinopathies and conditions of marrow failure in the near future.
Programs
Southern Alberta Rare Blood and Bleeding Disorders Comprehensive Care Program
| Location | Unit 57B, Foothills Medical Center |
| Program/Clinic Contact |
Office: AC547, Unit 57B
Phone: 403-944-4057 Fax: 403-944-3220 |
| Hematologists | Drs. Man-Chiu Poon (Director), Robert Card, Shannon Jackson, Farzana Sayani |
| Program Team members |
Manager: Marilyn Bouchard
Nurse Coordinators: Morna Brown, Carol Spitzer Physiotherapist: Marie deGuzman Social Worker: Lezley Ireland |
| Designated Consultants |
Orthopedist: Dr. Shannon Puloski
Gynecologist: Dr. Susan Baranowski |
| Current Components |
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| Functions/Objectives |
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| Provision of urgent care |
Weekdays 8am-4pm: Comprehensive care clinic;
Off hours: Unit 57 at the direction of on-call hematologist (Life/Limb threatening emergencies receive care in the Emergency room) |
The Program was created by the Department of Medicine and Calgary Health Region in November 2007 for patients with a variety of rare blood and bleeding disorders to provide safe and efficient management, including prevention of disabilities, particularly to those requiring long term blood and blood product support. The comprehensive care model described above will serve to not only improve outcome and quality of life of these patients and their families, but to also improve the efficiency of their care, decreasing utilization of the emergency room and in-patient ward services. Home care is strongly advocated, within which supervised home-infusion of products for appropriate patients is an important component.
The Program is unique in providing 24/7 urgent care (see table) to patients who would otherwise have utilized the Emergency room. Over the 9 months (November 2007-August 2008) period, the program had 540 patient-encounters (excluding telephone consults). Of these, 318 encounters were for urgent care and only 23 utilized the Emergency room.
The initial stage of program development was the repatriation of adult patients with hemophilia and other congenital bleeding disorders already under comprehensive care management at the Southern Alberta Hemophilia Clinic at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. The next stage was to build additional comprehensive care models around other rare blood disorders. The number of patients registered as of July 2008, includes 312 persons with bleeding disorders (153 females, 159 males) and a small number of patients with hereditary angioedema and beta-thalassemia major.
We began to formalize a Women with Bleeding Disorder clinic around the Bleeding Disorders Clinic, in conjunction with the Dept of Gynecology/Obstetrics in September 2008. With the recruitment of Dr. Farzana Sayani, an expert in hemoglobinopathy, in August, we are beginning to develop comprehensive care for patients with thalassemia major and sickle cell disease/sickle cell syndromes