Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine Fellowship
Fellowship Director: Hlaing Tint, MD
Our one-year long transfusion medicine fellowship is ACGME-accredited. Dr. Hlaing Tint, MD, leads the program and our transfusion medicine physicians are actively involved in fellow education. The primary fellowship training is Memorial Hermann Hospital-TMC (MHH-TMC), a Level 1 Trauma and Burn Center which also houses a Transplant Center, Heart and Vascular Institute and a Children’s hospital, offering exposure to a wide variety of cases and patient populations. We welcome candidates who have completed ACGME accredited residency and/or fellowships from a variety of disciplines including: pathology, hematology/oncology, anesthesia, pediatrics, critical care, and internal medicine.
Rotations Overview
Fellows will rotate through a variety of services at various institutions within the TMC including:
Our reference laboratory, one of the largest in Southeast Texas, offers comprehensive training in transfusion service operations. Fellows gain hands-on experience interpreting complex antibody panels, investigating transfusion reactions, resolving compatibility issues, and optimizing blood component utilization.
This unique clinical consultative service, developed in partnership with the Heart and Vascular Institute, positions fellows as interventional blood banking consultants. Working within a multidisciplinary care team, fellows manage patients with complex bleeding and coagulation disorders, including those undergoing cardiovascular procedures.
Fellows participate directly in patient care through apheresis procedures such as plasmapheresis, red blood cell exchange, photopheresis, plateletpheresis, leukapheresis, and therapeutic phlebotomy. This rotation emphasizes clinical decision-making and procedural skills in therapeutic apheresis.
As one of the largest community blood donation centers in the country, this rotation provides fellows with valuable experience in donor center operations, cellular therapy collection, and advanced immunohematology techniques. Fellows also gain exposure to regulatory and quality assurance practices in donor services.
This specialized rotation introduces fellows to cutting-edge histocompatibility and immunogenetics. Training includes anti-HLA antibody testing, C1q-fixation assays, killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) typing, platelet antibody investigations, and cytokine profiling using Luminex-based platforms.
Fellows gain experience managing transfusion services for one of the largest bone marrow and stem cell transplant programs in the country. The rotation also includes time with the Hemovigilance Unit, which conducts real-time monitoring and analysis of transfusion-related events and outcomes.
This advanced rotation exposes fellows to the clinical and laboratory aspects of cellular therapy, including stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies, solid tumors, hemoglobinopathies, and autoimmune diseases. Fellows are introduced to innovative therapies such as CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapy, expanding their understanding of cutting-edge immunotherapy for hematologic cancers and solid tumors.
Example Fellow Schedule:
- Five and a half blocks of Blood bank/Apheresis.
- Four blocks of Hemotherapy.
- One block of HLA.
- Half a block at Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center.
- Half a block of Coagulation.
- Half a block of Cellular Therapy
Fellows take an average of one week of blood bank/apheresis call per block (13 weeks during training).
Faculty:
Our transfusion medicine faculty are dedicated to fellow education with regular didactic sessions, and serology boards.
Current faculty members include:
- Dr. Yu Bai, MD, PhD
- Dr. Nnaemeka Ibeh, MD
- Dr. Mohammed Rigi, MD
- Dr. Amanda Herrmann, MD, PhD
- Dr. Paul Allison, MD
Apply:
- Applicants must have completed an ACGME accredited residency and/or fellowship.
- We welcome candidates from a variety of disciplines including: pathology, hematology/oncology, anesthesia, pediatrics, and internal medicine.
- Candidates interested in the Transfusion Medicine Fellowship may send their CV and 3 letters of recommendation to Fellowship Coordinator, Ms. Amy Macias