Emerging infections have been at the center of blood safety for decades. With control of the historic risks, hepatitis viruses and HIV, we are facing different qualitative and quantitative issues, and an expanding list of agents have our attention. The agents of interest and the options for mitigation of risk will be reviewed, including pathogen reduction, which offers a proactive approach for these concerns.
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About Louis M. Katz, MD
Dr. Louis M. Katz’s current positions are as Chief Medical Officer at America’s Blood Centers in Washington D.C. and Medical Director of the Scott County, Iowa, Health Department.
Katz completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. He is board-certified in both disciplines and practiced clinical infectious diseases focused on HIV medicine, viral hepatitis and critical care infections. He was Hospital Epidemiologist at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport, Iowa until July 2009.
In the early 1980s, when HIV was recognized as an emergent issue for transfusion medicine, Katz was asked to serve as a consultant at the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center and was a Medical Director and then Executive Vice President until Sept. 2012. MVRBC is headquartered in Davenport and serves more than 80 hospitals in four states.
Katz is a two-time past chair of the AABB Transfusion Transmitted Diseases Committee and a current member. He has served on the FDA’s Blood Products Advisory Committee, including a term as its chair, and has been a member of numerous committees, task forces, and working groups at AABB.
From 2003 to 2005 Katz was President of America’s Blood Centers and received ABC’s Thomas F. Zuck Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
Katz has authored or co-authored more than 50 abstracts, articles and chapters, primarily concerned with transfusion-transmitted infections and other transfusion medicine topics. He is an adjunct clinical professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Roy and Lucille Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa.
Dr. Katz and his wife, Jane, live in rural Cedar County, Iowa.
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The Education and Research Committee
The committee is charged with making recommendations to the Board of Trustees in all matters pertaining to education and research. The committee oversees the Gulf Coast School of Blood Bank Technology, the provision of research grants and scholarships, and this annual lectureship.
P.A.C.E.® Continuing Education Credit
One hour of P.AC.E.® credit: The Blood Center is an approved provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E.® Program.
About Bill T. Teague, BS, MT(ASCP)SBB
Bill T. Teague served as CEO of Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center from the day it opened on Jan. 1, 1975, until his retirement in February 2006. His career spanned almost 50 years of service in the transfusion medicine profession, beginning as a medical technology student and gaining experience in hospitals, regional blood centers and international reference labs. Active in his profession and community, he was elected president of AABB, South Central Association of Blood Banks (SCABB) and the Florida Division of ASMT. He was the first blood bank specialist, MT(ASCP)SBB, to be elected president of AABB.
During his tenure, Teague received numerous honors, including: Medical Technologist of the Year from the Florida Division of ASMT; two-time annual lecturer for SCABB; the AABB Outstanding Administrator Award; the 2002 Ernst and & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award; the 2003 President’s Award from the Association of Donor Recruitment Professionals; and the 2003 AABB John Elliott Award. He received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Greater Houston Visitors and Convention Bureau, the Harris County Medical Society Alliance, the Rotary Club of Houston, SCABB and America’s Blood Centers. The Blood Center’s Board of Trustees named its headquarters facility donor room the Bill T. Teague Neighborhood Donor Center.
Having served the community on numerous boards of trustees, he continues to serve as a director on the boards of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Texas 4-H Youth Development and the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce. He and his wife, Lynn, moved to their home in Nacogdoches County upon his retirement. They have two sons, Tim and Jim, and two grandchildren. They enjoy training their Labrador retriever and are American Kennel Club judges for retriever hunting tests.
Previous Bill T. Teague Lectureship speakers
Dr. Harvey Alter, Dr. Jeffrey McCullough, Dr. Stephen Gould, Dr. Herbert Polesky, Dr. F. Blaine Hollinger, Dr. Marion E. Reid, Dr. Roger Dodd, Dr. Harold Kaplan, Dr. Kathleen Sazama, Dr. James AuBuchon, Dr. Edward Snyder, Dr. Harvey G. Klein, Dr. Mark A Popovsky, Dr. George Garratty, Dr. Celso Bianco, Dr. John B. Holcomb, Dr. Aryeh Shander, Dr. Arthur W. Bracey, and Dr. Merlyn H. Sayers.