Volume 4
WHAT’Snew
Number 14
July 10, 2015
Pennsylvania Hospital
When Less is Just Right Philadelphia is chock full of historical firsts, including in the field of medicine. Just last month, two of Penn Medicine’s big “firsts” celebrated their birthdays: the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania — the nation’s first medical school — turned 250 and PAH, the nation’s first hospital, turned 264. For over two and a half centuries, both institutions have been home to `` Shown here, Patricia A. Ford, MD, founder and director of the CBMS at PAH, speaking at a patient education symposium.
Almost 20 years ago, Ford performed the world’s first bloodless autologous stem cell transplantation in a nonHodgkin’s lymphoma patient.
Inside When Less is Just Right Continued.............................................. 2 UPHS Nursing Clinical Excellence Award Winners.................................... 2 More High-Fives for PAH Heart Heroes............................... 3 New IS Self-Serve Portal................... 3 Prepping for Philly to Host World Meeting of Families and a Papal Visit ................................. 4 Penn’s Fourth Annual 5k for the IOA and Memory Mile Walk.............................................. 4
individuals on the cutting edge of clinical care.
One area of ongoing innovation is overseen by Patricia A. Ford, MD, the founder and director of the Center for Bloodless Medicine & Surgery (CBMS) at Pennsylvania Hospital, director of the Peripheral Stem Cell Transplant Program, and clinical professor of Medicine. Almost 20 years ago, Ford performed the world’s first bloodless autologous stem cell transplantation in a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patient. A stem cell transplant was the only chance of a cure for this patient, yet a typical autologous stem cell transplant was out of the question, since this patient was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He, as do all Witnesses, firmly believes that blood “stands for life…has special significance…and should not be misused” or removed from the body and stored as it would via a transfusion. These beliefs call Witnesses to seek bloodless medicine and surgery, which refers to a variety of techniques that allow a patient to be treated without blood or blood products.
Ford, who established the CBMS in 1996, making it one of the oldest and largest bloodless centers in the U.S., has been at the forefront of treatment for patients without using whole blood or blood products such as red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma. But let’s get back to that first patient in 1995. An autologous stem cell transplant — a type of transplant in which the person’s own stem cells are used — was the recommended course of treatment. In such a transplant, the cells are collected in advance and returned to the body to replace stem cells damaged by high dose chemotherapy used to treat certain types of cancers. However, at that time, it wasn’t thought possible to successfully treat a patient with an autologous stem cell transplant without a blood transfusion or other blood product support. It was thought to be unsafe — and unsurvivable — since blood products are customarily used to prevent and treat infections that may arise due to depleted white and red blood cell supplies during the period before the transplanted cells “engraft” / / / Continued on page 2
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