About the Author

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Syed Abutalib is Assistant Director of Hematology and Blood and Marrow Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Program. Dr. Abutalib earned his medical degree from Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan and subsequently completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Cook County Hospital and a Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. During his Fellowship he participated in Leukemia Research at Northwestern Hospital & University of Chicago. Board certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Hematology, Dr. Abutalib specializes in benign hematology, malignant hematology and hematopoietic blood and marrow cell transplant. Dr. Abutalib has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including the American Journal of Hematology, Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, and the American Journal of Clinical Pathology and has written chapters for medical textbooks, including Acute Leukemias (2008), Evidence-Based Hematology(2008), Expert Hematology & Oncology Essentials (2014) and Cancer Consult-Expertise for Clinical Practice (2014), Essential Oncology (2015). Dr. Abutalib is the editor of several books including, Cancer Consult-Expertise for Clinical Practice published on behalf of Blackwell Wiley Health Sciences. He is on the editorial board for Clinical Oncology News and THE ASCO POST magazine and contributes regularly in the column " How I Manage.." and "Expert Hematology Review", respectively. Besides his Patients he hold Medical Education dear to his heart. Jean M. Connors is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr Connors received her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. She completed residency in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and fellowships in both Hematology/Oncology and Transfusion Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Dr Connors cares for patients with inherited and acquired thrombotic and coagulation disorders. As Medical Director of the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute Anticoagulation Management Service, Dr Connors oversees anticoagulation practices in outpatient clinical settings. She is also the Medical Director of the Hemostatic Antithrombotic Stewardship program, a multi-disciplinary care delivery program, to ensure judicious and optimal use of anticoagulants and clotting factors across all BWH inpatient services. She has participated in a variety of types of clinical trials focusing on anticoagulation including investigator initiated, served on scientific advisory boards for a number of companies, teaches extensively at many levels including peers in CME courses as well as fellows and residents, and has written numerous reviews and chapters in the area of thrombosis-hemostasis.Margaret Ragni is a Professor of Medicine and Clinical Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received her MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. She completed her residency and fellowship in hematology/oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, where she joined the faculty in 1983. Dr. Ragni's research interests are in congenital and acquired disorders of hemostasis and thrombosis, and, in, particular in novel therapeutics for patients with hemophilia with and without inhibitors. She serves on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF), the FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee, the Scientific Committee on Hemostasis of the American Society of Hematology, and on the Medical Advisory Board for the Foundation for Women and Girls with Blood Disorders (FWGBD). She also served as Co-Chair for the 2014 ASH Annual Meeting; as Co-Chair of the Research Committee of the Hemostasis & Thrombosis Research Society, and is a member of the Research Committee of the American Thrombosis & Hemostasis Network. She is past member of the Hemostasis Thrombosis Study Section of the NHLBI, and Co-Chair of the Bleeding Disorders Subcommittee of the NHLBI State of the Science Symposium. She serves on Scientific Advisory Boards for Alnylam, Baxalta, Biogen, and Biomarin. She has conducted numerous clinical trials, observational studies, retrospective data base analyses, cost-effectiveness analyses, and investigator-initiated new drug trials in hemophilia and von Willebrand disease. She is the medical director of the Hemophilia Center of Western PA, providing care for patients with bleeding and clotting disorders, teach and mentor medical students, residents, fellows, and young faculty.