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Focus areas that shape the job

Most hematologists narrow down after fellowship, sometimes with an extra year.

• Malignant hematology

  Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Chemotherapy, immune therapies and transplants. Intense, and the patients are very sick.

• Classical hematology

  Clots, bleeding disorders, anemia and sickle cell disease. Clinic based, fewer emergencies, chronically short of specialists.

• Transfusion medicine

  Running a hospital blood bank and deciding how a limited blood supply gets used. Laboratory based, with its own accreditation standards.

• Stem cell transplant

  Replacing a patient's entire blood-forming system with donor cells. Only done at major centers.