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Availability of care for adults with sickle cell disease
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To the editor:
This letter serves as a brief commentary prompted by the cover story in the March 25 issue of HemOnc Today titled “Lost in transition: Care for adults with sickle cell disease ‘complex puzzle.’”
The boxed comment on the cover from Jane S. Hankins, MD, MS — “It hits close to home when you know someone for 18 years, and then 3 years later they’ve passed away.” — implies that sickle cell care is nonexistent or incompetent after St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It is further stated on page 14 that the transition team at St. Jude works to tailor treatment options that address the needs of patients beyond medical care, including a “lack of follow-up adult care.”
I disagree.
The Sickle Cell Center in Memphis, Tenn., is located in the Regional Medical Center. It is affiliated with the University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences Center. It was formed in 1958 by Lemuel W. Diggs, MD, who had a longstanding interest in sickle cell disease and had provided care for these patients in their homes and in his office at the medical school since the 1920s. He was joined in 1952 by A.P. Kraus, MD.
The Sickle Cell Center became recognized as a center dedicated to research in and treatment of sickle cell disease in 1958 and became NIH funded in 1972. It later became one of the Comprehensive Centers for Research and Service of sickle cell disease. Pediatric care was taken over by the local pediatric hospital in 1979.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital permanently took over the care of pediatric sickle cell patients in the mid-1990s. The UT Center, officially the Diggs-Kraus Sickle Cell Center, has provided uninterrupted adult care since the 1950s and continues to do so at the present time. The center’s outpatient clinic, on average, sees 15 patients daily, providing comprehensive care in the outpatient and inpatient settings. Their patient pool lists 562 patients. Since 1993, the center has been headed by Patricia Adams-Graves, MD.
Adult comprehensive care for sickle cell patients has been available in Memphis for many years and continues to be available. In this regard, your article was somewhat misleading.
— Marion Dugdale, MD
Professor Emeritus
College of Medicine
The University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center