The Specialist in Blood Bank Technology/Transfusion Medicine Program is a 12-month online learning program designed to prepare students to assume advanced positions as technical specialists in the field of immunohematology and transfusion medicine.
The program is accredited by the Commission on the Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) to prepare participants for the Specialist in Blood Banking (SBB) exam provided by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists Board of Certification (ASCP-BOC).
Program Goals and Outcomes
The program’s goal is to prepare competent specialists in blood banking technology. Upon graduation, students will have developed technical and supervisory competencies in immunohematology, blood component manufacturing, and Transfusion Medicine. They will be able to function as supervisors, educators, researchers or technical consultants – working as part of the healthcare team in providing state of the art health services to patients.
Class | #Graduates | #Students Attempting SBB Exam | #Students Passing SBB Exam | %pass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Totals | 16 | 14 | 13 | 92.85% |
2019 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
2020 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 100% |
2021 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 75% |
2022 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 100% |
2023 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
2024 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
First time examinees mean scaled score: Program – 525 National – 417
The program starts in May and accepts 2 to 5 students per year. The tuition is $6,000 for the program. Completion of this program fulfills the ASCP Route 1 criteria for application to take the SBB exam (the program does not award college credit). Applications are typically due in February.
Student Eligibility Requirements:
All applicants must:
All applicants are considered without regard to race, sex, national origin, age, religion or disability.
Applicants from countries where English is not the native language are required to submit scores for the TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language) and have an evaluation of their transcript by an acceptable agency.
Key Program Personnel:
Medical Director
Samantha Gomez Ngamsuntikul, MD
BioBridge Global
Program Director
Ronny Fryar, MS, MT(ASCP)SBB
University Health
Education Coordinator
Jose Quesada, MS, MT (ASCP)SBB
BioBridge Global
Faculty
Leslie Greebon, MD
University Health / UT Health
John Daniels, JD, DO, MBA, MPH, MT(ASCP), FASCP
University Health / UT Health
Jose Quesada, MS, MT(ASCP)SBB
BioBridge Global
For more information, contact Education Coordinator Jose Quesada and Program Director Ronny Fryar.
University Health is a complex of healthcare facilities. At the hub is University Hospital which is a premier teaching hospital for San Antonio and south Texas. It provides transfusion services to diverse adult and pediatric patient populations:
Annually, more than 16,000 red blood cell units, 7,000 plasma units and 3,000 platelet units are transfused. Transfusion Medicine oversees the therapeutic apheresis program where more than 400 therapeutic apheresis procedures and red blood cell exchanges are performed annually.
The hospital-based blood donor services collect and manufacture blood products from more than 6,000 whole blood and platelet donors annually.
For more information, click here
