As the healthcare industry wrestled with vaccine denial during and after the pandemic, another related concern emerged. For some Americans, a new form of skepticism grew around blood transfusion. This population perceives that blood banks and the blood supply are unsafe due to donations from those vaccinated against COVID and subsequently protest receiving a blood transfusion even when medically necessary.
Both vaccines and the blood supply system sit at the crossroads of public health services and private decision-making. To be successful, patients must trust in the system, which necessitates strong community connections and clear messaging. A broken link in the communication structure can have dire consequences.
In George Mason’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Heidi Lawrence – who has long researched the rhetoric of medical and scientific controversies – and Julie Gerdes at Virginia Tech – who focuses on health communication -decided to team up to address this compelling, novel issue. Although Lawrence knew Gerdes, a 4-VA collaborative partnership would allow them to join forces and get the support they needed for this important research. 4-VA leadership at George Mason and Tech agreed, and the pair were awarded a grant to launch the effort.
Their goal was ambitious. They wanted to study this predicament in the field of hematology and transfusion medicine within a framework of communication; produce rhetorically informed appropriate responses and create a framework for investigating and countering similar problems with blood donation and vaccine refusal at other sites.
Lawrence and Gerdes asked graduate students Jessie Wiggins at Mason and Temitope Ojedele-Adejumo at Tech to join them in the project.
The group identified several crucial objectives for their research:
- Analyze vaccine concerns expressed on websites, in social media, through podcasts, and other sources to identify misunderstandings about vaccines and blood.
- Conduct interviews with clinicians who experienced patient blood refusal.
- Observe transfusion medicine rounds presentations, onsite blood banks, blood testing facilities, bloodless surgery, emergency blood services, and other components relevant to blood collection and storage.
- Interview patients who expressed unease about blood products and vaccine safety.
To do so, it was imperative that they conduct the research in situ at a leading healthcare facility to fully study the rhetorical context of this phenomenon. A premiere hospital system in the Midwest United States was interested in collaborating on the project. The Mason and VT team donned their hospital scrubs and got to work with the facility’s Department of Transfusion Medicine.
Following a thorough assessment over months of time, the researchers identified several critical actions, and potential pitfalls, in the development of a successful communication approach to the targeted patient group.
First, they determined it was vitally important to direct patients to reputable networks and sources of information on the blood supply system. Additionally, they found that having a trusted physician engage in an extended discussion with the patient helped address and allay specific concerns. (It was recognized, however, that there is often not the time, structure, or training for a clinician to adequately implement this step. Further, the blood system is very complex and demands for specific patient accommodations are often difficult to fulfill.) One interesting observation during the onsite work was that the patient interviews positively influenced the patient’s perception of their care. Patients were grateful for the chance to tell their stories to Gerdes and Lawrence and reported that the interviews and discussions helped to restore appreciation for and trust in the hospital.
Although Lawrence’s and Gerdes’ study is still ongoing and they continue to recruit more patient interviews, the results and guidelines have already been enthusiastically received at the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) Annual Conference and at the Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Arthropod-Borne Pathogens annual symposium. They are also working on a paper for a key industry journal. The project also has received continued 4-VA at Virginia Tech to support collaboration with Tom Ewing on his “Human Dimensions of Infectious Disease” project. This spinoff supports two additional undergraduate research assistants, Hailey Richards at Tech and Katy Morejon Portillo at Mason.
Lawrence praises the 4-VA support at George Mason and Tech which brought the project to fruition. “We never would have been able hire our graduate students and to conduct the site visit without 4-VA. Our time at the hospital brought the complexities of the clinical experiences—for patients and physicians—to life,” Lawrence explains. “Those firsthand encounters allowed us to truly understand the gravity of the situation many patients find themselves in, and the physicians recognized the importance of working across departments to give every patient the best care possible.”