General Hematology

The General Hematologists at Vancouver General Hospital care for patients with a wide variety of disorders of the blood and bone marrow including:

  • Hematological malignancies such as lymphoma, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes and leukemia.
  • Immune mediated diseases of the blood and bone marrow such as immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) autoimmune hemolysis (AIHA) and chronic idiopathic neutropenia.
  • Various other hematological disorders such as iron overload, inherited and acquired anemias, bleeding disorders, and rare hematologic conditions.

The General Hematology Team works in consultation with the BC Cancer Agency and oversees the Thrombosis Program and Apheresis Program of BC, see below for information on these programs.

The Apheresis Program of BC is a unique program whose mandate is to provide the full complement of apheresis medical procedures to the adult residents of the province of British Columbia. This includes all peripheral blood stem cell collections for the Leukemia/BMT program of BC and from unrelated registry donors for other transplant programs and mononuclear cell collections for therapeutic T cell infusions.

The Apheresis Unit (AU) is the only facility within BC which provides cytoreduction procedures (leukapheresis, platelet pheresis and erythrocytapheresis) for adult patients. The unit performs the majority of therapeutic plasma exchanges and serves as the designated facility for emergency apheresis procedures in the province of BC with dedicated 24/7 MD and RN coverage. Plasma exchange is primarily offered for indications within four main diagnostic categories: neurological disease, hematological disease, collagen-vascular disease and renal disease. Finally extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is provided for bone marrow transplant patients with chronic GVHD and for treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, in partnership with the BC Cancer Agency. The unit performs on average 900-1000 plasma exchange, 250-300 stem cell collections and 200 ECP procedures per year.

The Thrombosis Program is dedicated to providing outstanding care to patients with venous thromboembolism. We primarily serve the residents of the lower mainland in Greater Vancouver but also provide tertiary level consultation to all residents of BC. We are dedicated to educating patients, their families and primary care physicians on venous thromboembolism.

In addition to patient care, our program is also active in medical education. Our hematologists are involved with teaching at all levels of the medical curriculum, including medical students, residents and research fellows. Our hematologists have won numerous teaching awards for their excellence in teaching. Patient-centered research is a priority of the Thrombosis Program and we conduct clinical trials in drugs and interventions that help improve the care and outcome of patients with venous thromboembolism.

To learn more about our program and the diseases we treat, visit the Thrombosis Program Website.