President’s Award

Richard K. Spence MD

Early involvement in 1982 in the care of patients without blood transfusion led to both a lifelong interest for Doctor Spence and his development of one of the first bloodless medicine and surgery centers in the world.

He has devoted much of his clinical work to the advancement of blood management. He has been recognized both nationally and internationally for his work and is a sought-after speaker. He is the author of over 250 publications in these areas. Recently he co-authored the article Can Intravenous Iron Therapy Meet the Unmet Needs Created by the New Restrictions On Erythropoietic Stimulating Agents? which was published in Transfusion and is currently available online as a CME.

He is the only surgeon to have been awarded a Transfusion Medicine Academic Award grant from the National Institutes of Health.

He chaired the committee responsible for the development of surgical transfusion guidelines that were published in 1995 in the American Journal of Surgery. He has contributed chapters on transfusion and surgery to several major surgical and transfusion textbooks. He co-edited the 2nd edition of Perioperative Transfusion Medicine, a leading text in the field.

He was founding member of SABM and served as its first president. He is a founding board member of the Medical Society for Blood Management.