Dr Bruce Spiess thinks that bloodless medicine is the ultimate destination of patient blood management, currently promoted by the World Health Organization and several professional medical societies around the world. He marshals his reasons in a thought-provoking and captivating lecture that takes us through basic medical sciences of physiology of oxygen delivery to the tissues, patho-physiology of anaemia, deleterious effects of blood transfusion, and clinical superiority of bloodless medicine.
Dr Spiess is Emeritus clinical Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Florida School of Medicine in Gainesville, Florida. Dr Spiess has focused his research upon blood: its critical oxygen carrying capacity, oxygen therapeutic pharmaceutical development (previously known as “blood substitutes”), risks of blood transfusion, and coagulation/coagulopathies and development of monitoring technologies. His extensive work in blood transfusion risks has led him to be an outspoken proponent of patient blood management and bloodless surgery.
Dr Spiess has authored over 200 peer reviewed academic articles, more than 40 book chapters, seven textbooks and appeared on the Discovery Channel and in many other lay media. His work has been funded mostly by the US Department of Defense and he has led major conferences for the DOD, NIH, FDA with regards to critical blood issues. Dr Spiess is a member of SABM and BMSS, among many other professional societies, and has served on SABM Board. In 2019 he received Bloodless Medicine & Surgery Society Award of Excellence "for his excellent contributions to the science and practice of Bloodless Medicine & Surgery."
