About this series
Bench, Bedside & Viva Essentials
Blood🩸Doctor 5-Minute Pearls is a professional teaching library for haematology trainees and laboratory staff. It is written for colleagues, not for patients.
In one sentenceShort, evidence-led haematology teaching that is accurate enough for the laboratory, practical enough for the ward, and structured enough for the viva.
Who this is for
The library is written for FRCPath and FCPS candidates, haematology registrars, internal medicine trainees, junior doctors and specialist nurses. It assumes clinical training and uses the vocabulary of the specialty without apology.
Patient-facing material is published separately at blog.blooddoctor.co. Nothing here is written for patients, and nothing here should be handed to a patient in place of counselling.
The four teaching series
| Series | What it does |
|---|---|
| 5-Minute Pearls | Rapid teaching on one topic, result, drug, assay, diagnosis or clinical dilemma. |
| Key Points | A concise, high-yield summary of a topic, guideline, paper, laboratory method or clinical pathway. |
| Practice-Changing Pearls | Evidence, therapies, diagnostic advances and guideline changes that should alter what is actually done. |
| A Must Remember | One essential safety, diagnostic or examination point, tied to the consequence of missing it. |
How each pearl is structured
Every item answers three questions in order: what is it, why does it matter, and what must I do or remember. Each then closes on the same four points — why this matters in practice, the common trap, what to remember, and the source.
Editorial standards
- Factual clinical claims are tied to a specific guideline, paper, textbook source or laboratory standard, with the year where available.
- Expert opinion is labelled as opinion, not presented as evidence.
- Where evidence is incomplete, conflicting or out of date, that is stated, together with what should be checked before teaching or applying the point.
- Definitive treatment recommendations are avoided where local protocols, patient-specific factors or specialist discussion are required.
- For laboratory content, pre-analytical, analytical and interpretive limitations are stated whenever they materially change the teaching point.
Corrections
Corrections from colleagues are welcome and are acted on. If a statement is wrong, unclear, or has been overtaken by a guideline, write to [email protected] and say which page and which line.
This site is educational. It does not replace local laboratory standard operating procedures, local anticoagulation policy, the summary of product characteristics, or specialist advice on an individual patient. Local validated assays, reference ranges and nomograms remain decisive.
Written and edited by Dr Abdul Mannan FRCPath FCPS, Consultant Haematologist. Blood🩸Doctor 5-Minute Pearls · [email protected]