In this session, speakers will share how their transplant centers have improved referral processes, as well as best practices to overcome barriers to early referral from diagnosing and community hematology/oncology practices. They will share how early and streamlined referral processes can help patients better navigate their transition from the community to the transplant center while avoiding delays in care and facilitating the best possible patient outcomes. Expert presentations will help guide a moderated discussion to gather feedback from attendees on barriers they currently face at their transplant centers to early HLA typing, referral, and care coordination.
This educational activity is derived from the live webinar, originally held on April 24, 2025.
Speakers
Ellen Muir, RN
Transplant Coordinator
Cohen Children’s Hospital
New York, NY
My name is Ellen Muir, and I work with the Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapies Team at Cohen Children's Medical Center, located in Queens, New York. My passion has always been working with pediatric patients battling cancer and blood disorders. My nursing career started in 1988, and have worked in peds hem/onc ever since. I have found a permanent home working with the transplant team and am privileged to work with NMDP!
Hannah Walker, RN
Nurse Manager
TN Oncology
Chattanooga, TN
I am a nurse manager of an inpatient oncology unit at a community hospital in Chattanooga, TN. We have an expanding hematologic malignancy program, and in 2020-2021 began collaborating with HCT organizations in an effort to decrease time to transplant for our patients. HLA Today has been a key initiative in those efforts.
Sydney Stupp, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C
Clinical Social Worker II
CHLA
Los Angeles, CA
Sydney Stupp, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C is a transplantation and cellular therapy clinical social worker at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. She received a BA in sociology from CSUN and a MSW from USC. She is also currently pursuing a MBE from Harvard Medical School. Her clinical work focuses on providing psychosocial support to patients & families in the TCT clinic and inpatient unit. She also leads programming related to emotional and financial support of these patients and families. She serves on the board of the Association of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers as the communication chair, is a member of the Ethics Resource Committee at CHLA, and is actively engaged in the larger transplant and cellular therapy community.
Anna Cincotta, MSN, NP
Senior Manager, Access Partnership Strategy
NMDP
Arlington, VA
My name is Anna Cincotta, I am the senior manager of Access Partnerships at NMDP based in Virginia. My career prior to joining NMDP was as a nurse and a nurse practitioner caring for hematology oncology and BMT patients. I was thrilled to join the NMDP and continue to support these patients in a different way. My new role within the NMDP is focused on how we as an organization increase access to transplant for patients initiating care at non-transplant centers and in the community so that regardless of a patient’s demographics and where they live, they have equitable access to transplant as a potentially curative treatment option.
Samantha Watters, MPH
Principal Provider Education & Research Partner
NMDP
Montross, VA
Samantha Watters is a leader in provider education and research at NMDP. She designs education and guides research related to access to hematopoietic cell transplant. She develops physician education content to connect physicians and patients with programs and services that can help improve patient outcomes and experience. She received her Master’s and is receiving her PhD from the University of Maryland (May, 2025), with an educational background in health education, health communication, and behavioral health program planning and evaluation. She has extensive experience across a wide range of health topics. She has directed, developed, and managed health communications, outreach, and research efforts for various organizations and government agencies. She also hosts the NMDP Explore Cell Therapy podcast.
Accreditation and Disclosure Information
Target Audience
This activity is intended for physicians, nurses, social workers, coordinators and other healthcare professionals engaged in a patient’s journey to transplant and cell therapy.
Agenda
- Welcoming remarks, introduce topic, panelists; collect insights on barriers from audience via write-in polling
- Speaker presentations
- Hannah Walker: Experiences with early referral to Sarah Cannon and incorporating HLA Today (~10 mins)
- Ellen Muir: Implementation of HLA Today at the transplant center and a novel system of streamlined referrals (~10 mins)
- Syndey Stupp: Overcoming patient barriers to care early in the journey and care coordination across hematology/oncology practices and transplant centers (~10 mins)
- Anna Cincotta: Clinical importance of early HLA typing and HLA Today to improve early care coordination and patient outcomes (~10 mins)
- Moderated Q&A with call outs to barriers from audience polling, wrap up, closing comments
Learning Objectives
After completing this activity, the participant should be better able to:
- Describe barriers to and best practices of early and streamlined referrals from hematology/oncology practices to the transplant center.
- Examine the impacts of early and streamlined referral processes on the transition from the community to the transplant center and patient outcomes and experience.
- Discuss the value of early HLA typing, streamlined referral, and care coordination between hematology/oncology practices and transplant centers.
Jointly Provided by:
Accreditation
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Medical Learning Institute Inc, and NMDP. Medical Learning Institute Inc is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
Physician Continuing Medical Education
Medical Learning Institute Inc (MLI) designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Nursing Continuing Professional Development
Successful completion of this nursing continuing professional development activity will be awarded 1.0 contact hour.
ILNA
The program content has been reviewed by the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation (ONCC) and is acceptable for recertification points in the following ILNA subject areas:
1.0 point: Cellular Collection, Preparative Regimens and Infusion; Foundations of Transplant; Oncology Nursing Practice; Professional Practice/Performance; Transplant Process and Infusion; or Treatment
The numerical value(s) indicated above is the maximum amount of points that can be claimed in each subject area domain. The total amount of points claimed may not exceed the total amount of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) or CME awarded from this course and may only apply to the credential being renewed.
Social Worker Continuing Education
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Medical Learning Institute Inc (MLI) is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses are approved under this program. Regulatory boards have the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 1.0 general continuing education credits.
Support Acknowledgement
There is no commercial support associated with this activity.
Disclosure & Conflict of Interest Policy
Medical Learning Institute Inc and NMDP are committed to providing high quality continuing education to healthcare professionals, as individuals and teams, with a protected space to learn, teach, and engage in scientific discourse free from influence from ineligible companies that may have an incentive to insert commercial bias into education. To that end, MLI requires faculty, presenters, planners, staff, and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of this CE activity to disclose all financial relationships they have had in the past 24 months with ineligible companies as defined by the ACCME, as related to the content of this CE activity, regardless of the amount or their view of the relevance to the education. All identified COI will be thoroughly vetted and mitigated according to MLI policy. These disclosures will be provided to learners prior to the start of the CE activity.
Faculty Disclosures
Speaker
Ellen Muir, RN
Transplant Coordinator
Cohen Children’s Hospital
New York, NY
Ellen Muir, RN, has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose for this educational activity.
Speaker
Hannah Walker, RN
Nurse Manager
TN Oncology
Chattanooga, TN
Hannah Walker, RN, has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose for this educational activity.
Speaker
Sydney Stupp, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C
Clinical Social Worker II
CHLA
Los Angeles, CA
Sydney Stupp, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose for this educational activity.
Speaker
Anna Cincotta, MSN, NP
Senior Manager, Access Partnership Strategy
NMDP
Arlington, VA
Anna Cincotta, MSN, NP, has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose for this educational activity.
Moderator
Samantha Watters, MPH
Principal Provider Education & Research Partner
NMDP
Montross, VA
Samantha Watters, MPH, has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose for this educational activity.
Planner
Emily LaMonica, BSN, RN, BMTCN
Clinical Operations Partner
NMDP
New York, NY
Emily LaMonica, BSN, RN, BMTCN, has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose for this educational activity.
Planning Committee and Content/Peer Reviewers
The planners and content/peer reviewers from Medical Learning Institute Inc, the accredited provider, and NMDP, the joint provider, do not have any relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies unless listed below.
Disclosure of Unlabeled Use
This educational activity may contain discussions of published and/or investigational uses of agents that are not indicated by the FDA. The planners of this CE activity do not recommend the use of any agent outside of the labeled indications. The opinions expressed in the CE activity are those of the presenters and do not necessarily represent the views of the planners. Please refer to the official prescribing information for each product for discussion of approved indications, contraindications, and warnings.
Disclaimer
Participants have an implied responsibility to use the newly acquired information to enhance patient outcomes and their own professional development. The information presented in this CE activity is not meant to serve as a guideline for patient management. Any procedures, medications, or other courses of diagnosis or treatment discussed or suggested in this CE activity should not be used by clinicians without evaluation of their patient's conditions and possible contraindications and/or dangers in use, review of any applicable manufacturer's product information, and comparison with recommendations of other authorities.
ONCC review is only for designating content to be used for ILNA points and is not for NCPD accreditation. NCPD programs must be formally approved for contact hours by an acceptable accreditor/approver of nursing NCPD to be used for recertification by ONCC. If the NCPD provider fails to obtain formal approval to award contact hours by an acceptable accrediting/approval body, no information related to ONCC recertification or ILNA categories may be used in relation to the program.
Method of Participation
There are no fees for participating in or receiving credit for this CE activity. In order to receive credit, learners must participate in the entire CE activity, complete the activity evaluation form and your certificate of credit will be generated. A passing score of 70% or higher is needed to obtain credit. You will receive your certificate from Medical Learning Institute Inc.
For information on applicability and acceptance of continuing education credit for this CE activity, please consult your professional licensing board.
If you have questions regarding your certificate, please contact MLI at mvu@mlieducation.org.
About this Activity
Medical Learning Institute Inc and NMDP are responsible for the selection of this activity’s topics, the preparation of editorial content, and the distribution of this CE activity. Our activities may contain references to unapproved products or uses of these products in certain jurisdictions.
The materials presented here are used with the permission of the authors and/or other sources. These materials do not necessarily reflect the views of Medical Learning Institute Inc or any of its partners, providers, and/or supporters.