American Society for Apheresis (ASFA)

With a mission to promote apheresis medicine for patients, donors and practitioners through education, evidence-based practice, research and advocacy, ASFA was formed in 1982 by the union of two organizations, the Society of Hemapheresis Specialists (SHS) and the original ASFA. The Society of Hemapheresis was formed by nursing and allied health professionals; they were responsible for performing the donor and therapeutic procedures and operating the various blood cell separators.  In 1982, John Verrier-Jones,were the first president of ASFA. It represents a broad range of professionals practicing pathology, transplantation, haematology, oncology, neurology, gastroenterology-logy, cardiology, and ophthamology. This health care provider are involved in the performance of therapeutic apheresis procedures including plasma exchange, red cell exchange, leukocytoapheresis, platelet apheresis, photopheresis, LDL apheresis, and hematopoietic progenitor cell collection. It also represents those physicians and allied health professionals involved in the collection of blood products from donors using apheresis instruments. It was formed to provide educational and networking opportunities in the area of apheresis medicine that were not available and which were needed by the original members in order to advance the field.  The vision of this society is to lead apheresis medicine by continually improving patient and donor care.