Each year the SABM President’s Award and the Kathleen J. Sazama Award is presented to esteemed members of the Patient Blood Management community.

SABM President’s Award

The SABM President’s Award is presented annually at the Society’s Annual Meeting in recognition of those who have made outstanding medical, scientific and/or educational contributions to patient blood management and that have contributed to the public good in the area of blood safety and the reduction of unnecessary transfusions.

2023 President’s Award Winner

Richard Melseth

This year’s recipient of the Society for the Advancement of Patient Blood Management’s (SABM) 22nd President’s Award is Richard Melseth who is currently Project Director, Society for the Advancement of Patient Blood Management, focusing on the professional development of its membership. His efforts are on PBM learning activities and the development of medical research opportunities. 

Richard served as Executive Director of SABM from 2010-2012 and 2017-2019, SABM Board Member from 2003-2009, and as a founding member since 2001. Melseth is unabashedly a SABM-ophile. 

Richard was introduced to PBM concepts in 1995 while serving as a patient advocate and hired to develop of one of the early PBM programs at St Luke’s Medical Center, and later as Director of Blood Conservation Medicine at Banner Good Samaritan Regional Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Melseth initiated development of hospital policies, clinical protocols, the alignment of PBM with hospital strategic planning, and the opening of the first Anemia Clinic in 2006. Melseth also coordinated multiple medical education programs for physicians, nurses and technicians—both regionally and internationally—lecturing in fifteen cities in China, Malaysia, Israel and Portugal. 

Melseth has relished the opportunities that PBM has opened to improve lives and practice where vision, courage, discipline and action have been essential to success. He believes as Robin Williams said in Dead Poets Society, “Carpe diem . . . seize the day . . . make your lives extraordinary”. 

Melseth has published on the hospital integration of patient blood management principles, use of intravenous iron in pregnancy, and anemia prevention and management. One of Melseth’s most exciting endeavor was globally interviewing clinicians and co-producing the film documentary Primum Non Nocere (First Do No Harm), borrowing another Latin phrase, that was released in 2012. 

Melseth is enjoying semi-retirement in Portugal where the sun, surf and wine are plentiful.

The SABM President’s Award is presented annually at the SABM Annual Meeting in recognition of those who have made outstanding medical, scientific and/or educational contributions to patient blood management and that have contributed to the public good in the area of blood safety and the reduction of unnecessary transfusions. Carolyn Burns, MD, presented the award to Richard Melseth. 

Kathleen J. Sazama Award

This award is created In recognition of Dr. Sazama’s bold insights in the field of medical ethics, her selfless dedication to the fostering of individual growth, her steadfast and responsible stewardship through change, and her tireless leadership in the field of patient blood management.

The recipient will have:

• Exemplified the high standards and qualities set by its namesake
• Demonstrated commitment to patient rights, autonomy, and informed choice
• Shown strength of character to lead with progressive evidence based thinking, even if contrary to popular belief
• Selflessly served with the well-being of the patient as the ultimate goal
• Demonstrated consistent dedication to progress in the field of patient blood management

2023 Kathleen J. Sazama Award Winner

This award is created in recognition of Dr. Sazama’s bold insights in the field of medical ethics, her selfless dedication to the fostering of individual growth, her steadfast and responsible stewardship through change, and her tireless leadership in the field of patient blood management. This year’s winner, Dr. Patricia Ford, is a physician, oncologist, hematologist and Director for the Center of Bloodless Medicine at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia She is widely considered the pioneer for bloodless surgery and medicine. In 1995, she performed the first bloodless stem cell transplant. Ford has performed the procedure over 700 times and teaches this technique to doctors all over the world. In 2001, Dr. Ford was a founder of the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management (SABM) and has educated thousands of doctors and patients about bloodless medicine.