Perspectives: Educating Transfusion Medicine Professionals in Planetary Health and Infectious Diseases: Should Blood Banks Have Dedicated Infectious Diseases Consultation Services?

Transfusion medicine and blood banking educators across the world have identified a need to incorporate more education in planetary health and infectious diseases into clinical training. The urgency of these calls has increased as climate change has accelerated and deleterious health effects attributable to climate change have become more prevalent. Today, few academic hospital centers have dedicated infectious diseases consultation services within departments or divisions of transfusion medicine, but the presence of a dedicated team focusing on transfusion-transmitted infections can impact clinical education in transfusion medicine, infectious diseases, and other specialties. This article presents several models for these multidisciplinary teams in clinical practice.