Focus on Quality:
Employee Spotlight: Ed Ferreol, MD, CTBS
Ed Ferreol has spent most of the past two decades criss-crossing the country for LifeNet Health, meeting with donors,
training recovery partners and speaking at national conferences and industry-related events on a subject he knows better
than just about anyone: standards of excellence in organ and tissue recovery and recovery processing. Today, Ed is senior
manager for technical tissue recovery for LifeNet Health and is responsible for all of the technical training recovery
partners receive on LifeNet Health's exacting standards and requirements—standards that consistently meet and exceed what
the industry itself requires. "I fly the friendly skies," laughs Ed, a professional whose whole career has been spent going
the extra mile.
LL: When did your interest in the field of organ and tissue recovery begin?
EF: Early in my career, soon after finishing a fellowship in neuropathology at the University of Cincinnati, I became
director of blood banking in Indianapolis. During that time, a group of orthopedic surgeons came to me and said "Ed, we
need bone." I told them I had bone marrow, but they said no, we're talking about actual bone. I started looking into it
and researching standards for tissue banking...
LL: Tissue banking in the U.S. has come a long way since those early days.
EF: Oh, yes, definitely. This was in 1987 when the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) was still in its formative
years. There really wasn't much out there aside from what the AATB was doing. I was able to use my medical background in
general surgery and anatomical and clinical pathology as well as my knowledge of blood banking to help get one started at
the blood bank. We became the 16th AATB-accredited tissue bank in the country.
LL:What brought you to LifeNet Health?
EF: I knew LifeNet Health founder Bill Anderson through AATB meetings and was impressed with what he and his group were doing.
I interviewed with him in December of 1989 and a few days later, I was moving to Virginia Beach for a new role they created for
me in recovery and recovery processing...
LL: And today?
EF: The growth of LifeNet Health, especially in the last six years, has been amazing. Our recovery partners now include 52 of
the country's 58 organ procurement organizations as well as several blood banking-based tissue banks. We work very closely with
our partners and they do the same with us. We're often out there in the field with them monitoring and reviewing procedures and
practices and have built some very strong relationships over the years. LifeNet Health is well-known for a very high standard of
excellence and for our national leadership in the field. I'm very proud of that.
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