Blood Donation and How it Relates to Primary Care

Host: Darryl S. Chutka. M.D. [@chutkaMD] Guest: Justin E. Juskewitch, M.D., Ph.D. January is National Blood Donor Month | Here are a few interesting facts regarding blood donations: Over 4.5 million American lives are saved each year by blood transfusion and approximately 40,000 units of donated blood are used each day in the U.S.  A single individual involved in a motor vehicle accident can easily require over 100 units of blood.  We each have about 10 units of blood in our body and each donation represents about one unit. Surprisingly, only 38% of the population is eligible to donate blood and of these eligible individuals, only 5%, actually donate. The topic for this podcast is “Blood Donation and How it Relates to Primary Care” and my guest is Justin E. Juskewitch, M.D., Ph.D., from Transfusion Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Connect with the Mayo Clinic’s School of Continuous Professional Development online at https://ce.mayo.edu/ or on Twitter @MayoMedEd.