Ashutosh Lal, MD, is a hematologist at University of California San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Professor of Pediatrics, UCSF School of Medicine, Director of Clinical Hematology, Comprehensive Thalassemia Center and Iron Disorders Program, and the Hemoglobinopathy Diagnostics Laboratory. His academic and clinical interests are the treatment and research in thalassemia, iron overload, and nutrition. The Comprehensive Thalassemia Program in Oakland is the largest clinical program in the country actively managing 350 active patients with thalassemia. Dr.