Steven Hiho, Scientist
Victorian Transplantation and Immunogenetics Service (VTIS)
What’s your role?
I am a scientist at VTIS and currently working within the molecular typing section. I am also part of the on-call team who have to be available day and night to process deceased donor testing for potential organ transplants.
What does a typical work day look like for you?
Testing DNA samples from patients and donors who need stem cell transplants, organ transplants or matched platelets to determine the HLA typing. HLA matching determines compatibility between a donor and recipient. This plays an important role in successful transplantation.
What happens when urgent organ donor samples are received?
When blood samples from a potential deceased organ donor arrive, the testing must be started immediately and seen through to completion, no matter if it arrives at 2pm or 2am! It’s usually an 8-hour process of testing and crossmatching to identify compatible recipients for kidney, heart, lung, intestine, pancreas and liver recipients. This regularly involves communicating directly with transplant coordinators and doctors to elaborate on and interpret results, and advise them on transplant compatibility with their patients, often occurring within strict time restraints.
What is the most important aspect of your role?
Providing accurate and timely results to clinical staff, allowing them to make the best-informed decisions for their patients. It’s very satisfying work knowing we contribute to life-saving work every day.
How are you and your team working to better serve customers?
We have lots of customers both internal and external to the Blood Service including donors, patients and the clinical teams involved in their care. This is a very dynamic field of science so it’s important to be aware of developments in technology and clinical practice so these can be introduced for improved transplant outcomes.
What’s something unique or interesting about your team that customers might not know?
You are 11 times more likely to conceive twins if you work at VTIS!