 My name is Robert Tassen. I specialize in benign hematology at the John Thorer Cancer Center. So benign hematology is the medical subspecialty that deals with the disorders of the blood that are nonmalignant, namely anemias, low and high, white blood cell counts, red blood cell counts, platelet counts. Also we deal with bleeding disorders as well as blood clotting issues. It's quite a broad field with a number of different options and treatment protocols based on the specific need of the specific patient. Patients who've had thrombotic complications often will require an extended evaluation looking for genetic and or acquired reasons for the development of their thrombosis. This ultimately also will require treatment with various blood thinners for patients with issues with bleeding disorders like von Willebrand's disease or factor deficiencies. We often administer medications that will prevent them from having significant bleeding, most commonly in the setting of a surgical intervention. Patients who have overproduction syndromes like polycythemia vera, which is an overproduction of red blood cells, will be treated with phlebotomy, removing a unit of blood periodically so that their blood is not as viscous and the risk of having a blood clotting event from the overproduction of red blood cells will be reduced. Patients who have essential thrombocytosis and overproduction of platelets will often be treated with an oral medication called hydroxyurea that will help control the overproduction of platelets. For patients with sickle cell disease specifically it's traditionally been a disease that has not had a lot of fantastic treatment options. It has historically been hydroxyurea and transfusional support and pain control and it's made sickle cell disease a very unpleasant condition to have to deal with. In the last year there have been two new medicines that have been FDA approved. One to help decrease the frequency of painful crises and one to help improve hemoglobin values to decrease transfusion requirements. So that's been a tremendous help for many of the sickle cell patients for whom I manage. I think it's a responsibility of every physician to communicate effectively, being able to have that connection and then being able to specifically tailor the treatment for your individual patient not based necessarily on their diagnosis alone but on their specific needs as well.