About BloodCare
BloodCare is a specialist medical practice provided by Dr Lydia Pitcher for patients referred with blood disorders.
Dr Lydia Pitcher (Haematologist/Oncologist) primarily consults at Chermside Medical Complex, within ICON Cancer Care.
She is also a visiting medical consultant in both public and private hospitals in Brisbane, with fortnightly clinics at Noosa Hospital on the Sunshine Coast.
Blood disorders covered by this practice include a wide variety of haematological issues.
Additional resources for patients, including links to the most relevant web pages are also provided.
About Dr Lydia Pitcher
Dr Lydia Pitcher is a Brisbane based Haematologist/Oncologist with extensive experience in clinical and laboratory blood disorders of children and adults.
Her interests include the assessment of problems with blood counts (such as anaemia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia), bleeding and clotting issues, thalassaemia, and the long term follow-up of patients after chemotherapy and transplant for leukaemia or lymphoma (late effects of therapy). She has broad experience in the diagnosis and management of leukaemia and stem cell transplant.
Dr Pitcher believes that good communication with patients and their referring doctor is very important.
Blood disorders and haematology
Haematology is the study of blood (cells and plasma), the blood forming tissues (including lymph glands, tonsils, spleen and bone marrow) and blood diseases. This includes the assessment of non-malignant disorders (unrelated to cancer, associated with changes to cell counts, immune function, and the control of blood loss), and malignant disorders (such as leukaemia and lymphoma).
Blood diseases (or haematopathology) can include disorders of red cells that carry oxygen (anaemia, thalassaemia, polycythemia), white cells that fight infection and provide allergic responses (neutropenia, neutrophilia, eosinophilia, leukaemia/lymphoma), and platelets that help blood to clot (thrombocytopenia, thrombocytosis). Other blood problems may include haemolysis (red cell destruction) including Hereditary Spherocytosis and G-6PD deficiency, and Paroxysmal Nocturnal Haemoglobinuria (PNH), haemoglobinopathies, haematinic deficiencies (iron deficiency, vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies) and auto-immune cytopenias such as Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP).
Abnormalities of the plasma component of blood can also affect bleeding and clotting (haemostasis and thrombosis) causing inherited and acquired disorders such as haemophilia, von Willebrand disease and menorrhagia (heavy periods), thrombasthenia (platelet function disorders), thrombophilia such as the Factor V Leiden mutation, and anticoagulation (blood thinners) for deep venous thrombosis (blood clots) including pulmonary embolism (clots to the lungs).
Dr Pitcher has undertaken training in both the clinical (physician or internal medicine) and laboratory (pathology) aspects of this specialised field of haematology, for infants, children, adolescents, pregnancy, and adults.
Dr Lydia Pitcher's qualifications
Dr Lydia Pitcher is a dual qualified haematologist/oncologist, with Fellowships in both the College of Physicians (FRACP) and the College of Pathologists (FRCPA). She graduated with honours in Medicine (M.B.B.S.) in 1987, having also completed a Bachelor of Medical Science (concerning breast cancer) and her A.Mus.A (Pianoforte) in 1985. She undertook her initial post-graduate study of haematology in Queensland at the Royal Brisbane, Women’s and Children’s and Mater Misericordiae Hospitals, with advanced training in London, at the Hospital for Children, Great Ormond Street.
Dr Pitcher has worked as a consultant haematologist/oncologist and stem cell transplant physician in Brisbane, and Auckland, New Zealand. She has been involved in Paediatric Medicine for more than 20 years, with an increasing involvement in adult haematology during the last 10 years. She is an active member of the Queensland Medical Women’s Society, and has a strong commitment to women’s health. She also maintains her long term involvement research, teaching and medical ethics.
Professional affiliations
- ICON Cancer Care (formerly Haematology & Oncology Clinics of Australia)
- Royal Australasian College of Physicians
- Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia
- World Federation of Hemophilia
- Haemophilia Foundation of Queensland
- Thalassaemia Association of Australia
- Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand
- Australian and New Zealand Children’s Haematology/Oncology Group
- Australian Medical Association
- Timor Children’s Foundation