Faisal Mukhtar, M.D.

FAISAL MUKHTAR MD, MBBS, FCAP, FASCP

Dr. Faisal Mukhtar is Medical Director of Transfusion Services at Shands Hospital at University of Florida Blood Bank as well as Staff Cytopathologist. He also holds an appointment as Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine.

Dr. Mukhtar earned his medical degree from Khyber Medical College, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. He then pursued his Anatomic/Clinical Pathology residency at Howard University and Howard University Hospital in Washington D.C. After pathology residency he joined the University of Alabama at Birmingham to pursue fellowships in surgical pathology and cytopathology in Birmingham, AL. He then pursued fellowship in blood banking / transfusion medicine at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center/ Institute of Transfusion Medicine in Pittsburgh, PA.

He is quadruple board certified i.e., Anatomical pathology, Clinical Pathology, Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine and Cytopathology.

He joined the University of Florida Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine in January 2015 as a faculty member, after serving as Medical Director of Blood Bank and Staff Pathologist for 2 ½ years at Howard University Hospital, Washington DC.

As Medical Director Transfusion Service, Dr. Mukhtar is responsible for ensuring the Quality Assurance and Control plan is carried out in an appropriate manner for the blood bank. Medical Director provides continuous feedback to the Manager and other technical staff in order to provide better patient care and meet the needs of patients and customers. Medical Director provides clinical consultation to medical staff and intervene in complex quality or patient care issues. Medical Director provides guidance and direction in the selection of instruments, test, methods, kits and computer software. Medical Director is required to review and approve validation of instrumentation or software, new and revised procedures as well as evaluating and determining the type of blood products will be made available for the patient. Medical Director is responsible for overseeing the implementation and adherence to the quality program. This is to include periodic monitoring and review of quality documents (Proficiency Testing, Incident /Variance reports, SUF Quality Improvement Reports, Patient Safety Reports for SUF and Transfusion Committee Dashboard Reports.

Dr Mukhtar’s research interests are in the areas of immunohematology, stem cell and solid organ transplants, blood program management/utilization, fine needle aspiration cytology including EUS/EBUS and use of screening test for prevention of gynecological malignancy.

He is a member of Association of Advancement in Blood and Biotherapies, College of American Pathologists and American Society of Clinical Pathology.

As a part of my clinical service, I am responsible for a substantial part of the education of residents and fellows in the pathology department. I participated in a lab for second year medical students and participated in clerkship rotations involving fourth year medical students in Transfusion Medicine. I was also actively involved in the education of the hematology oncology fellows and maternal-fetal medicine fellows rotating in Blood Bank as a part of elective rotation for couple of weeks. I give yearly didactic lectures to Hematology Oncology fellows, Anesthesia residents and fellows, and physician’s assistant students.

I also serve as the Staff Cytopathologist at UF Health Shands Anatomical Pathology Laboratory, which processes both medical and gynecology cytology including FNA, body fluids and part of gynecological pathology service covering cervical biopsies. It also includes the Cytopathology Consultation Service.

I am involved in several research projects with pathology residents and fellows as a part of Pathology training requirement. I am investigator in several projects in Blood Banking and Cytopathology. I have collaborated with various departments including Emergency Medicine, Pediatric Critical Care, Anesthesiology, Fetal-Maternal Medicine and Bone Marrow transplant.