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Blood
Preface
The study of blood can and should be rewarding. But most hematology texts elicit
confusion and dread in the average reader - after all, hematology texts are
written for hematologists or for students of this complex topic.
By the late 1980s, John F. Dailey had achieved two decades of practical experience
in surgery and industry, including multiple-trauma treatment, operation of the
heart bypass pump and other surgical equipment. He worked for medical equipment
manufacturers training physicians and allied health personnel on the use of
autologous blood recovery systems and conducted clinical trials on blood-related
new products. Fascinated with the topic of blood, Dailey became convinced that
providing practical, understandable, and easily accessible information on blood
would be welcome to a wide audience.
In 1990, he approached Jane E. Manley, an experienced editor and program manager
for major publishers in the educational textbook field. Together they established
Medical Consulting Group with the express purpose of providing clinicians, allied
health personnel, and industry with practical, easy-to-understand information
about hematology. The popularity of their first title, Dailey's Notes on Blood,
confirmed Dailey's basic premise. Medical Consulting Group also provides clinical
training seminars in hematology and immunology.
The key to understanding human physiology is blood, and the reasons for studying
blood and its functions are more compelling than ever before. For example:
* Blood is the most tested tissue in the human body, and is routinely used to
diagnose hundreds of illnesses.
* Transfusions, while saving lives, pose the risk of disease transmission and
complications.
* Blood-borne pathogens such as hepatitis and AIDS are ongoing threats to public
health.
* Medicine uses blood components to treat a variety of pathologic conditions.
* Recombinant technology now provides new treatment modalities, such as growth
factors, used to increase blood cell production in bone marrow.
* Treatment protocols make use of the patient's own immune system to combat
disease.
* Drug therapies rely on the blood for transport to disease sites.
Medical Consulting Group has endeavored to make Blood as accurate and easy
to understand as Dailey's Notes on Blood, our basic hematology text. Bloodaddresses
the needs of more advanced readers who require greater detail and additional
topics. Therefore, Blooddevotes entire chapters to topics such as apheresis,
bone marrow transplantation, oxygen and carbon dioxide transport, and the major
histocompatibility complex molecules, among others. It also includes 78 convenient
text-related blood tests. Specialists at the Massachusetts General Hospital
and around the country reviewed this book for accuracy, and the author used
the most recent texts in hematology, immunology, transfusion therapy, and bone
marrow transplantation as references in his research. Editors and designers
contributed greatly to what we hope is a very readable text.
Dailey's background includes a B.A. in Biology, St. Francis College; graduate
studies in Biochemistry and Physiology at the University of Rhode Island and
Brandeis University; and specialized training in Cardiovascular Perfusion at
Northeastern University.
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