Dr. Hines is internationally recognized for his efforts to develop and validate a gold standard for the Assessment of red blood cell health in clinical practice, work that grew out of patient care challenges he experienced as a pediatric intensivist. He received his medical degree and PhD in Pharmacology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed both his fellowship in critical care medicine and pediatrics residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr Hines has spent over 20 years investigating the mechanisms regulating microvascular blood flow in sickle cell disease, including sickle erythrocyte adhesion, leukocyte rolling, and platelet function. He is currently Founder and CEO of Functional Fluidics and Associate Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is also leading an effort to validate the role of red blood cell function in congenital heart disease, diabetic vasculopathy, and aerobic capacity in high performance athletes, and has received NIH support to better understand the importance of RBC health for patients on ECMO and ventricular assist devices, validate predictive biomarkers of preterm birth and low birth weight, and assess storage lesions in blood banked RBCs. Most recently his team has started to explore the relationship of red blood cell health to long haul COVID-19 affecting millions of individuals around the world.