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College of Medicine: Department of Pathology

Gina Drobena, M.D.

Gina Drobena

Dr. Gina Drobena specializes in Clinical Pathology with subspecialty board certification in Transfusion Medicine. Previously she was the medical director of Transfusion Services at UAMS and at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Currently, Dr. Drobena is medical director of Apheresis. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and also works with the hospital’s Culinary Medicine initiative. Dr. Drobena’s clinical interests include therapeutic apheresis, cellular therapy collection and processing, pediatric transfusion, and blood donor issues. She is a fellow of the College of American Pathologists, a member of the American Society for Apheresis, and a member of AABB where she serves on the patient blood management education committee.

Her most recent publications include:

  1. Gupta P, King C, Benjamin L, Goodhart T, Robertson MJ, Gossett JM, Pesek GA, DasGupta R. Association of hematocrit and red blood cell transfusion with outcomes in infants undergoing Norwood operation. Pediatric Cardiology 2015 Aug;36(6):1212-8.
  2. Pandey S, Cottler-Fox M, Drobena G. Hemoglobin variants acquired post-exchange transfusion in pediatric sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. Ann Clin Lab Sci. 2015 Nov;45(6):627-630.
  3. Pandey S, DrobenaG, Cottler-Fox M. Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia: A cautionary tale. Transfusion. 2015 Dec;55(12):2790.
  4. Rosenbaum E, Pandey S, Harville T, Drobena G, Cottler-Fox M. Flow cytometric panel-reactive antibody results and the ability to find transfusion-compatible platelets after antibody-desensitization for allogeneic bone marrow transplant. Ann Clin Lab Sci. 2016 Nov;46(6):662-665.
  5. Allison A, Delapaz M, Meena-Leist C, Drobena G. Plasma failing visual inspection. J Clin Apheresis. 2017 Dec;32(6):562-563
  6. Thomasson RR, Yazer MH, Gorham JD, Dunbar NM; MTP Use Study Investigators, on behalf of the Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion (BEST) Collaborative. International assessment of massive transfusion protocol contents and indications for activation. Transfusion. 2019 May;59(5):1637-1643.