The hematology section provides high-quality treatment for patients with hematological (blood) diseases. The unit is a Center of Excellence of stem cell transplantation. The patient, quality, safety and effectiveness of treatment are at the core of all our activities. The foundation of hematological therapy is continuous scientific research. Our aim is to maintain high quality treatment and to integrate swiftly the most recent treatment practices into our clinical work.

Treatments are organized flexibly and always optimized individually in timely manner for each patient.

Our objective is to become one of the best units providing hematological therapy and stem cell transplantation services in the Nordic countries.

We treat patients at the

	​Stem Cell Transplant unit
	​Hematology ward
	​Hematology outpatient clinic

The hematology unit is located in the T-hospital.

We are a Full Member of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation EBMT.

Our stem cell transplantation unit has been internationally accredited since 2006 by international quality system of JACIE/EBMT. This accreditation is reviewed by regular audits to guarantee continuous adherence to the international quality criteria set by the JACIE/EBMT.

The stem cell transplantation unit of Turku University Hospital, a part of the Western Cancer Centre (FICAN West), has been appointed a Centre for Excellence in the Hospital District of Southwest Finland.

At our unit, patients are cared for by a multiprofessional team of top experts in the field of hematology. We focus on continuous education and training of our staff and on a high level of well-being at work.

Our physicians are highly experienced professionals in hematology. They put much effort into continuous scientific research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients with blood diseases.

Our doctors:

​	​ Maija Itälä-Remes Head physician, Professor, Head of section, Director of the stem cell transplantation program
​	​ Marjut Kauppila Specialist in internal medicine and clinical hematology, Adjunct professor
​	​ Mervi Putkonen Specialist in internal medicine and clinical hematology, Doctor of Medical Science
​	​ Pia Ettala Specialist in internal medicine and clinical hematology
​	​ Juha Ranti Specialist in internal medicine and clinical hematology
​	​ Tuomas Ruohonen Specialist in internal medicine, Specializing physician in clinical hematology
​	​ Jonna Juhola Specialist in internal medicine, Specializing physician in clinical hematology, Doctor of Medical Science
​	Taneli Lehtilä Specializing physician in clinical hematology

Head of nursing staff

​	​Heli Salovaara Head nurse of department Phone 02 313 2015
​	​Erica Lauraeus-Käkelä Assistant head nurse of department Phone 02 313 5015

A team of highly professional nurses attend to you at the haematology ward and outpatient clinic.

We provide excellent nursing care!

Patients from all over Finland are welcome for assessment and treatment. Each patient has the freedom to choose where to be treated. The decision to seek specialized medical care is made by the patient in consultation with her/his treating physician. You are free to request a referral from your physician to a treatment location of your choice.

Activities of the Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation unit: some statistics

Activity of Tyks Hematology and Stem Cell Transplant Unit in numbers, year 2019:

• Referrals 941
• Outpatient visits 12 766
• Treatment periods 699
• Inpatient ward days 5 772
• Inpatient treatment duration 8,3 days

Patient satisfaction 

Your feedback is very much appreciated. We are keen on learning what you think about the treatment and service you received at our unit. It is through patient feedback that we are able to examine and develop our work to serve all our patients better. We collect all patient feedback systematically. For this, we use the QPro feedback system. Also, each feedback item is discussed and processed at our unit.

Overall, the feedback we get shows that our patients are very satisfied with their treatment:

”My illness was treated just on time and with effective therapy. Nursing, care and communication during treatment and also during my recovery was just fabulous.”

”Thank you, doctors! You work hard and create targeted and individualized treatment.”

”I have a very high regard for the nurses of this unit. Most of them have a precise, informative and correct, but still warm attitude toward patients, which gives the patient a feeling of security and safety during the enormous and stressful process of stem cell transplantation.”

Give feedback on your

treatment experience

Our unit participates actively in international medical research and clinical trials. In addition, we put much effort into research within our own transplantation unit with the immediate aim to constantly develop treatments and transplantation methods to better serve our patients.

Our international collaborators are the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) group and a number of Nordic disease-specific collaborative groups and European scientific groups.

Our research focus is on  

1. the use of novel molecular genetic methods in the follow-up of treatment response,
2. the use of the newest immunological research findings to improve treatment outcomes,
3. the use of the newest techniques for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

We follow closely the international development of treatments and apply new findings to the treatment of our patients.

We participate in several clinical drug trials and thus we may ask our patients if they’d be interested in joining one of these trials. This opens a way for our patients to obtain novel drugs to treat their illness much sooner than otherwise possible. Our doctors select the patients who might be enrolled in clinical trials on the basis of their diagnosis and a number of inclusion and exclusion criteria set for each trial. Participation in these trials is always voluntary.

Our research is focused on:   

• national treatment programs for leukemias and myeloma
• international multicenter trials to treat leukemias and myeloma
• local trials on the use of molecular genetic techniques 
• analyses of the treatment results of our Stem Cell Transplantation Unit

In addition to physicians engaged in clinical research, two study nurses are employed by the unit. The two study nurses are (from left to right) Anitta Entonen and Helena Järviö, email: firstname.lastname@tyks.fi

​	​ Jaana Pakola, administrative coordinator, coordinates the management, quality and communication of the research projects, phone 02 3139142, firstname.lastname@tyks.fi.

We collect bone marrow samples, after obtaining the consent of each patient, for storage and scientific use by the national hematological biobank in Helsinki (FHRB). This valuable collection of samples opens the possibilities for detailed research into haematological diseases today and for years to come.

Our unit collaborates in several national and international scientific publications related to hematological treatments. Authors may participate as individuals or as members of collaborative groups.

Publications of Tyks Hematology unit