Sickle Cell Disease Care Management

Course overview

Sickle cell disease is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, affecting about 100,000 people, most of them Black or African American. Once considered a childhood illness, it is now a lifelong condition that most patients carry into adulthood, which means clinicians across nearly every setting will encounter it. This course gives healthcare professionals a practical, evidence-based foundation for managing sickle cell disease across the lifespan. It covers the biology of the disease, treatment that ranges from hydroxyurea to gene therapy, the prevention and screening that keep complications at bay, and the individualized, bias-aware management of pain. It also addresses the patient education, psychosocial support, and genetic counseling that round out comprehensive care, with attention throughout to the disparities that shape how patients with sickle cell disease are treated. Despite major advances in treatment, patients with sickle cell disease continue to experience delayed care, undertreated pain, and preventable complications. Clinicians who see these patients infrequently may be unfamiliar with current disease-modifying and potentially curative therapies, recommended prevention and screening schedules, or the scope of the CDC 2022 opioid guideline. That guideline does not apply to pain related to sickle cell disease; clinicians should use sickle-cell-specific guidance and individualized assessment rather than applying unrelated opioid dosage or duration thresholds. Bias can compound these gaps when patients are incorrectly labeled as drug-seeking, deepening mistrust and delaying care. Because the disease burden now extends across adolescence and adulthood, healthcare professionals in primary care, emergency, and specialty settings need current, practical knowledge to recognize complications early, treat pain promptly, and deliver coordinated, equitable care.