Links

All these websites are essential reading and you should aim to cover all the available material.

BCSH guidelines - These will contain the latest current practice and will be important especially for the viva, but will be to a lesser degree useful for the written papers

UKHCDO guidelines - More than likely there will be questions that will relate to guidelines that come up from this website - often these are separate from the BCSH website.

RCOG guidelines - Pregnancy is a common topic that arises in part 2 in conjunction with haematological disease - so ensure you are familiar with guidelines on sickle cell disease, VTE and transfusion.

ihaematology - distills BCSH guidelines plus extra information

Bloodref.com - scoring systems for various malignancies which will be useful for the viva

NHSBT training and education - check when the dates for the next transfusion course will be and apply

NHS sickle cell and thalassaemia screening programme - this is probably more likely to form a section of the part 1 exam but may come up in a viva situation.

Serious Hazards of Transfusion - ensure you read the yearly report (at the very least in its abbreviated form!)

Royal College of Pathologists - please read the candidate information carefully under the Haematology section - there are a few sample practice questions as well.

Practical Haemostasis - an excellent website which covers the laboratory techniques and learning about coagulation. It will be important to cover almost all the questions on the website (apart from the genetics questions as they are unlikely to feature heavily in the exam)

These websites are not essential but may consolidate your learning:

Blood: How I treat - reviews on common haematological diseases and treatment by eminent clinicians. Will contain some topics (such as aplastic anaemia and acquired von Willbrand syndrome) on which BCSH may not currently have guidelines.

ASH education book - annual update on the latest advances in haematology from the American Society of Haematology

Other books that you may wish to cover for the morphology paper will be:

• WHO book of haematological classifications of diseases - frequently you will be asked to diagnose conditions (and learning immunophenotyping will be essential) - these will be found in the book under each disease.
• Blood Cells: A Practical Guide - you can purchase this in a hard copy or as an ebook. This is worth again reading cover to cover and familiarising yourself with the main causes of morphological abnormalities.
• Bone Marrow Pathology - useful for pictures and brief explanations - more as an aid to revision and something to dip into rather than reading through.