Assistant Professor of Pathology
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland
Dr. Herleen (Sofi) Rai is a Transfusion Medicine physician and Assistant Professor of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM). She serves as Associate Medical Director for the HATS Apheresis Clinic and Associate Residency Program Director, overseeing complex therapeutic apheresis, transfusion protocols, and trainee education. Her work integrates apheresis operations, transfusion support, and laboratory workflows for critically ill patients requiring high-volume product support and continuous anticoagulation.
Her expertise includes therapeutic apheresis, massive transfusion, and patient blood management in high-acuity settings. She collaborates with critical care, cardiothoracic, and hematology teams to coordinate product selection, anticoagulation monitoring, and procedure planning for patients with coagulopathy and extracorporeal support. She leads high-blood utilization procedures, such as therapeutic apheresis and cellular collections, honing skills in inventory forecasting, reducing product wastage, optimizing turnaround, and streamlining communication, all directly relevant to ECMO programs.
Her academic focus is on transfusion safety, patient blood management-driven process improvement, and operational strategy in apheresis and cellular therapies, with an emphasis on interprofessional training to improve understanding of assay limitations, evidence-based transfusion thresholds, and system-level coordination.
For this session, Dr. Rai will provide the transfusion service and apheresis perspective on ECMO, sharing practical strategies for aligning bedside decisions, laboratory data, and blood bank operations to enhance team coordination, resource use, and patient safety.
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