Kleber Yotsumoto Fertrin, MD, PhD

What is an important factor in patient care?

Personalized care is very important. Each patient I see is different and has different needs. Being an effective listener and building trust helps me address those varying needs. In the future, I hope we can apply modern technology to achieve not only personalized diagnosis and treatment of hematologic diseases, but personalized prevention of diseases as well.

Why do you work in health care?

I decided to be a doctor because I didn’t want to be around machines all the time. For a long time, I envisioned being an engineer because I was very good at math, but I wanted to be able to have daily interactions with people. As a teenager, I decided to work in health care because I found myself very interested in genetics research. Here at Fred Hutch, I have a nice combination of caring for my patients in clinic while also conducting research.

Provider Background

Area of Clinical Practice
Hematologic malignancies, non-malignant hematology, sickle cell disease

Iron Overload
In Brazil, where I’m originally from, thalassemia and sickle cell disease are public health problems and are managed almost entirely by specialized public hematology centers — all the way from diagnosis to treatment with transfusion and bone marrow transplantation. I first studied hemoglobin disorders as an undergraduate; this life-changing opportunity eventually brought me closer to patients, but also piqued my interest in research to try to help solve the issues I faced on a daily basis in the clinic. Recently, a complication that has particularly caught my eye is iron overload — specifically, trying to understand its clinical heterogeneity across different anemias and working toward better management of the condition.

Hemolytic Anemias
Benign hematology chose me. I happened to join a professor’s lab when I was an undergrad, and he worked with hemolytic anemias, especially the genetic ones. From that point on, I fell in love with the field. Prior to joining the team at Fred Hutch, I was a professor of hematology at the University of Campinas in Brazil. I have been involved in translational and clinical research involving red cell disorders and its complications since my medical school years.