Consensus recommendations of pediatric transfusion medicine objectives for clinical pathology residency training programs

BACKGROUND: Pediatric transfusion medicine (PTM) is a subspecialty of transfusion medicine with no formal training program and few specialists. The Pediatric Transfusion Medicine Academic Awardees (PedsTMAA) group surveyed PTM content experts to identify relevant objectives for the first formal PTM curriculum. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Eight North American PTM experts were invited to participate in a two-step consensus process. PTM-related objectives compiled from a review of existing training documents were organized into a survey. Experts were asked to rate each objective for relevancy for a clinical pathology trainee. Content validity indexes (CVIs) and asymmetric confidence intervals (ACIs) of expert ratings and analysis of respondents' comments were used to identify relevant objectives. RESULTS: Six experts participated and reviewed 117 objectives. Based on content validity criteria (CVI >= 0.83 and lower-limit 95% ACI >= 3), a total of 65 objectives were considered relevant. Twenty-three objectives were rated "very relevant" by all the experts while some proposed objectives were determined to be not relevant, out of date, or inappropriate for a resident trainee level. CONCLUSIONS: The PedsTMAA group identified 65 objectives for a PTM curriculum. Twenty-three represent a clear core set of objectives and should be considered for clinical pathology training. The next step is to consider the teaching strategies and evaluation methods that will be employed to best deliver this content addressing competency in medical knowledge.