Edward Snyder, MD, directs the Yale New Haven Hospital Blood Bank/Transfusion Service at Yale Medicine. The blood bank provides compatibility testing and blood products to Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) and its outpatient facilities. “The Transfusion Service supports all of the YNHH service lines, including orthopedics, oncology, pediatrics, transplants, surgery, and Ob/Gyn,” says Dr. Snyder. “Any patient in any department might need blood at some point.” Dr. Snyder oversees the blood needs of these programs, which together transfuse about 48,000 blood products each year, he says. Dr. Snyder first discovered his interest in blood banking as an undergraduate student working summers as a blood bank technologist at the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center in New York City. “I was intrigued by the way red blood cells clumped in the glass test tubes, which is a signal of blood incompatibility,” he says. In addition to his director role, Dr. Snyder also conducts clinical research on the pathogen reduction of blood products. This research is designed to determine how to efficiently and safely prevent the transmission of bacteria and viruses during transfusions. At Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Snyder is a professor of laboratory medicine.