I find that with age comes knowledge and with knowledge the loss of time (getting old and time moves quicker). I have been in the medical field, in different capacities, for over 40 years. I started as a phlebotomist while attending college, moving through the various Pathology departments and eventually landed in the blood bank. The blood bank offered the challenge to respond to test results, be innovative and be involved in direct patient care. I found myself involved in HIV research, developing the HLA laboratory for transplants programs, in-house donor testing and teaching Hematopathology to sophomore, senior medical students, Pathology Residents and the University Medical Technology program. I also have consulted with many International companies and have worked directly with the initial Sunquest Blood Bank Software development.

The reason I open with my background is through the years I have encountered numerous challenges and opportunities and I have always tried to provide the best with three foci, yes there are others but these will be a good start, that I approach any project.

• Caring

I have always cared about the information and how it is presented. The information can be transmitted to others for action whether it is supportive or some form of direct action. No harm should come from the information.

• Confidence

There must confidence is what is said, how it is said and an understanding that the information presented is understood, without ambiguity, in order that the actions taken is without compromise to self or others.

• Compliance

The information presented should be in compliance with standard of practice or care. This is very important in all aspects of life.

The final part of my working life involved providing Blood Bank software validations and I approach the validation process with the above three C’s. I want to leave a client site better than at the start of the validation. To this end, I want to work with the client to insure that the Care they are providing their patients and their families is the best when using the software. I want the client to have confidence that the software system is performing as intended from both the client’s and the software vendor’s perspective. Finally, Compliance, especially in the Blood Bank, is critical because of the scrutiny from the long list of agencies that have involvement with assessing the Blood Bank operations.