McMaster physician and Canadian Blood Services medical director takes top award in blood transfusion

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Blajchman.jpg” caption=”Morris Blajchman “]Hamilton physician Morris Blajchman has been awarded the prestigious Emily Cooley Memorial Award by the American Association of Blood Banks for his career in transfusion medicine. Blajchman is a professor of pathology and molecular medicine in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University and the medical director of Canadian Blood Services in Hamilton.

The award recognizes scientific and teaching ability in an individual who has made a major contribution to the field of blood transfusion medicine or immunohematology. In receiving the award at the association's annual conference, Blajchman gave a lecture on the top 10 randomized controlled trials in transfusion medicine.

“My entire career has been spent working to ensure that blood is as safe as can be and the best way of doing that is to obtain the highest quality of data with which to make good decisions,” said Blajchman.

Blajchman is currently the head of transfusion medicine services of the Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program. He has been a faculty member of McMaster University since 1970 and a vital part of the Canadian Blood Services' team for more than 25 years.

“This is a prestigious award from an important organization,” said John Kelton, dean and vice-president of the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster and a fellow hematologist. “Dr. Blajchman has been tireless in ensuring improvements to blood safety using evidence-based medicine.”

Blajchman has received several awards for his work and dedication, including the Canadian Blood Service's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 and the Ortho Award from the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine in 2004.

“Dr. Blajchman's contributions to transfusion medicine have helped improve the safety of the blood system,” said Graham Sher, chief executive officer of Canadian Blood Services. “We extend our warmest congratulations to him on receiving this well deserved award.”

In addition to helping form transfusion policies across Canada, Blajchman's efforts in research have brought new knowledge that has changed international transfusion practices.

His particular areas of research interest have been the stoppage of the flow of blood or hemostasis; the investigation of the hemostatic function of novel platelet products and substitutes; the evaluation of the removal of white blood cells from donated blood; the study of the immunomodulatory aspects of allergenic transfusions; the evaluation of the significance of bacteria in the blood supply; the investigation of transfusion requirements in critical care patients; and the exploration of structural-functional relationships of various clotting factors and inhibitors of coagulation.

Blajchman's medical training was at McGill University in Montreal, with post-graduate training in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and in hematology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London, England. In addition, he is the founding editor-in-chief of Transfusion Medicine Reviews and the author of more than 330 scientific articles and book chapters, and co-author of four books.