Washington, D.C. is home to 68 practicing hematologists who have offices in 1 county and 16 zip codes, including zip codes 20010, 20007, 20037, 20017, 20060, 20307, 20001, 20003, 20073, 20059, 20422, 20036, 20032, 20016, 20015, and 20006.

According to 2005 Census estimates, Washington, D.C. has a population of 550,521, which gives it a specialist to resident ratio of 1 hematologist for every 8,095 residents.

Description

Hematology is the study of the blood and blood disorders in the body. A hematologist is a physician who has expertise in diseases of the blood and bone marrow, and treats vascular and clotting problems. The hematologist also treats blood disorders such as hemophilia, leukemia, lymphoma, anemia and sickle cell disease.

Diseases / Illnesses Treated

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are malaria, lymphoma, non-hodgkin's lymphoma, myelomas, evans' syndrome, aids, leukemia, hemophilia, thrombocytopenia, sickle-cell disease, myeloma, pernicious anemia, hodgkin's disease, thalassemia, myelofibrosis, infectious mononucleosis, agranulocytosis, systemic lupus erythematosus (sle), megaloblastic anemia, and autoimmune hemolytic anemia.

Procedures Performed

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including chemotherapy, bone marrow transplant, blood transfusion, radiotherapy, intramuscular injections, anticoagulation therapy, and venesection.

Tests Performed

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including  coombs test, d-dimer, prothrombin time, bone marrow biopsy, protein electrophoresis, serum ferritin level, partial thromboplastin time, vitamin b12 and folate levels, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (esr), blood film, full blood count, and hemoglobin electrophoresis.