Dr Josephine McCullagh

Profile

Josephine is a clinical scientist specialising in transfusion medicine. She completed her higher specialist scientific training (HSST) between 2017 and 2022. During this time, she became a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) and undertook research looking at the feasibility of introducing whole blood for the management of traumatic haemorrhage under the supervision of Professor Laura Green. For this work she was awarded the silver research medal by the RCPath for outstanding research work undertaken by pathologists or scientists in training.

In 2024 she was appointed as a Consultant Clinical Scientist in transfusion medicine jointly between NHSBT and Barts Health NHS Trust. Josephine is actively involved in the wider transfusion community and is a member of the Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) working expert group (WEG) and co-authors the Avoidable, Delayed and Under transfused (ADU) chapter in the annual SHOT report. She is also an active member of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) and sits on the Clinical Transfusion working party.

Research

Research Interests:

My main interests are the use of technology and data to improve transfusion outcomes, the management of patients with iron deficiency anaemia, obstetric haematology and the management of patients with acquired bleeding, such a major haemorrhage.

Publications

Key Publications

Every minute counts: a comparison of thawing times and haemostatic quality of plasma thawed at 37oC and 45oC using four different methods (Transfusion Medicine, 2024)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tme.13061

The feasibility of introducing a whole blood component for traumatic haemorrhage in the UK (Transfusion Medicine, 2024)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tme.13039

Association of red blood cells and plasma transfusion versus red blood cell transfusion only with survival for treatment of major traumatic haemorrhage in prehospital setting in England: a multicentre study (Critical Care, 2023)
https://ccforum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13054-022-04279-4

Assessing the risks of haemolysis as an adverse reaction following the transfusion of ABO incompatible plasma-containing components - A scoping review (Blood Reviews, 2022)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268960X22000637?via%3Dihub

Making every drop count: reducing wastage of a novel blood component for transfusion of trauma patients (BMJ Open Quality, 2021)
https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/10/3/e001396

Thawing times and haemostatic assessment of fresh frozen plasma thawed at 37oC and 45oC using water-bath methods (Transfusion, 2019)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/trf.15553