Primary Board Certification: Internal Medicine
Subspecialties: Hematology, Transfusion Medicine

1980-2010: Chief, Blood Bank, UCSF (1980-1992 SF General, 1991-2010 Moffitt-Long Hospital)

1998-present: Founder and Director of the noontime Chancellor's Concert Series that brings free, high-quality, live classical music to the all-science UCSF campus.



1980-present: Prevention of diseases transmitted by blood and blood transfusion:

1. Prevention of hepatitis B transmission from mother-to-infant, by perinatal administration of hepatitis B immunoglobulin and hepatitis B vaccine to infants of carrier mothers. After this work was published and provided evidence that vaccination of infants was safe and effective, the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended routine hepatitis B vaccination for infants in 1991.

REF: Stevens CE, Toy PT, Tong MJ, Taylor PE, Vyas GN, Nair PV, Gudavalli M, Krugman S. Perinatal hepatitis B virus transmission in the United States. Prevention by passive-active immunization. JAMA. 1985 Mar 22-29; 253(12):1740-5.

2. Prevention of transfusion-associated diseases associated with transfusion by the use of autologous blood.

REF: Toy PT, Strauss RG, Stehling LC, Sears R, Price TH, Rossi EC, Collins ML, Crowley JP, Eisenstaedt RS, Goodnough LT, et al. Predeposited autologous blood for elective surgery. A national multicenter study. N Engl J Med. 1987 Feb 26; 316(9):517-20.

3. Prevention of unnecessary plasma transfusion, by determining that there is no increased risk of bleeding in patients with mild coagulopathy who underwent percutaneous needle procedures.

REF: McVay PA, Toy PT. Lack of increased bleeding after liver biopsy in patients with mild hemostatic abnormalities. Am J Clin Pathol. 1990 Dec; 94(6):747-53.

REF: McVay PA, Toy PT. Lack of increased bleeding after paracentesis and thoracentesis in patients with mild coagulation abnormalities. Transfusion. 1991 Feb; 31(2):164-71.

4. Prevention of bleeding from dilutional coagulopathy in trauma patients massively transfused with packed red blood cells, by earlier transfusion of plasma and/or whole blood.

REF: Leslie SD, Toy PT. Laboratory hemostatic abnormalities in massively transfused patients given red blood cells and crystalloid. Am J Clin Pathol. 1991 Dec; 96(6):770-3.

REF: San Francisco General Hospital Blood Bank procedures


5. Prevention of unnecessary transfusions by physician education and prospective review of blood orders.

REF: Toy PT. Audit and education in transfusion medicine. Vox Sang. 1996; 70(1):1-5.

REF: UCSF Blood Bank procedures

6. Prevention of unnecessary red blood cell transfusion, by examining the red blood cell transfusion trigger level. We determined that only hemoglobin levels below 7 g/dL are associated with organ impairment (cognitive dysfunction) during acute normovolemic anemia in normal humans.

REF: Weiskopf RB, Feiner J, Hopf HW, Viele MK, Watson JJ, Kramer JH, Ho R, Toy P. Oxygen reverses deficits of cognitive function and memory and increased heart rate induced by acute severe isovolemic anemia. Anesthesiology. 2002 Apr; 96(4):871-7.


7. Prevention of hyperkalemia (high potassium levels) and associated cardiac abnormalities in pediatric cardiac surgery patients, by washing stored red blood cells prior to transfusion on the morning of surgery.

REF: Weiskopf RB, Schnapp S, Rouine-Rapp K, Bostrom A, Toy P. Extracellular potassium concentrations in red blood cell suspensions after irradiation and washing. Transfusion. 2005 Aug; 45(8):1295-301.

REF: UCSF Blood Bank procedures

8. Prevention of exsanguination in acutely bleeding hospitalized patients, by establishing an Emergency Release procedure so that blood and blood components are rapidly available.

REF: Weiskopf RB, Webb M, Stangle D, Klinbergs G, Toy P. A procedure for rapid issue of red cells for emergency use. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2005 Apr; 129(4):492-6.

REF: UCSF Blood Bank procedures

9. Prevention of most hemolytic transfusion reactions associated with transfusion of Group O plasma, by not transfusing group O plasma to group A and AB patients (most ABO hemolytic reactions associated with transfusion of group O plasma are in group A patients, and rarely in group B patients).

REF: UCSF Blood Bank Procedures

10. Prevention of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) by establishing a clinical definition, determining the transfusion and patient risk factors, and observing the efficacy of transfusing plasma from predominantly male donors in reducing TRALI incidence.

REF: Toy P, Popovsky MA, Abraham E, Ambruso DR, Holness LG, Kopko PM, McFarland JG, Nathens AB, Silliman CC, Stroncek D. Transfusion-related acute lung injury: definition and review. Crit Care Med. 2005 Apr; 33(4):721-6.

REF: Toy P, Gajic O, Bacchetti P, Looney MR, Gropper MA, Hubmayr R, Lowell CA, Norris PJ, Murphy EL, Weiskopf RB, Wilson G, Koenigsberg M, Lee D, Schuller R, Wu P, Grimes B, Gandhi MJ, Winters JL, Mair D, Hirschler N, Sanchez Rosen R, Matthay MA. Transfusion-related acute lung injury: incidence and risk factors. Blood. 2012 Feb 16; 119(7):1757-67.

11. Prevention of TRALI in pediatric patients undergoing spine surgery, by identifying transfusion of maternal blood as an important risk factor.

REF: Dunbar N, Cooke M, Diab M, Toy P. Transfusion-related acute lung injury after transfusion of maternal blood: a case-control study. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2010 Nov 1; 35(23):E1322-7.

REF: UCSF Blood Donor Center procedures

12. Prevention of septic platelet transfusion reactions being mistaken for TRALI.

REF: Rollins MD, Molofsky AB, Nambiar A, Pandey S, Weiskopf RB, Toy P. Two septic transfusion reactions presenting as transfusion-related acute lung injury from a split plateletpheresis unit. Crit Care Med. 2012 Aug; 40(8):2488-91.