Sickle Cell Anemia Awareness Month with Joy Keys

Special Guest: Dr. Titilope Fasipe is the Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Sickle Cell Program and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in Hematology/Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. She is passionate about public health strategies to curb the psychosocial barriers, health complications and decreased lifespan of individuals with sickle cell disease. Dr. Fasipe has been repeatedly appointed to sickle cell-related advisory committees of the Texas Department of State Health Services and currently serves on the Newborn Screening Advisory Committee and the Sickle Cell Task Force. 

When it comes to sickle cell disease, Dr. Fasipe has the unique perspective of relating to and understanding the need for education, community awareness, support, and medical care as she is a pediatric hematologist as well as an individual with sickle cell disease.

Special Guest: Mary Hulihan is a Health Scientist in the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch of the Division of Blood Disorders, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over the past twelve years, she has served as the lead for the agency’s sickle cell disease grants, including their Sickle Cell Data Collection program, or SCDC.  Through this program, two states, California and Georgia, have designed, developed, and implemented an extensive data system that collects information about people living with sickle cell disease in these two states, including their clinical outcomes and health care utilization information over an extended time period.  At the end of this month (September 2020), that program will be expanding to include an additional seven states.  The information collected by this program is used to inform local, state, and federal health care practice and policies.