Hematology, also spelled haematology (from the Greek αἷμα haima "blood" and -λoγία), is the branch of biology physiology, internal medicine, pathology, clinical laboratory work, and pediatrics that is concerned with the study of blood, the blood-forming organs, and blood diseases. Hematology includes the study of etiology, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and prevention of blood diseases. The laboratory work that goes into the study of blood is frequently performed by a medical technologist. Hematologists physicians also very frequently do further study in oncology - the medical treatment of cancer.

Blood diseases affect the production of blood and its components, such as blood cells, hemoglobin, blood proteins, the mechanism of coagulation, etc.

Physicians specialized in hematology are known as hematologists. Their routine work mainly includes the care and treatment of patients with hematological diseases, although some may also work at the hematology laboratory viewing blood films and bone marrow slides under the microscope, interpreting various hematological test results. In some institutions, hematologists also manage the hematology laboratory. Physicians who work in hematology laboratories, and most commonly manage them, are pathologists specialized in the diagnosis of hematological diseases, referred to as hematopathologists. Hematologists and hematopathologists generally work in conjunction to formulate a diagnosis and deliver the most appropriate therapy if needed. Hematology is a distinct subspecialty of internal medicine, separate from but overlapping with the subspecialty of medical oncology. Hematologists may specialize further or have special interests, for example in:

Ruth Thompson (September 15, 1887 – April 5, 1970) was a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.

Thompson was born in Whitehall, Michigan and attended the public schools. She graduated from Muskegon Business College of nearby Muskegon in 1905, and became a lawyer with a private practice. She was registrar of probate court of Muskegon County and judge of probate from 1925- to 1937. She gained national recognition as an advocate for children's rights during that period. She was elected the county's first female state representative in 1938 and served as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives (Muskegon County 1st district) from 1939-41.

Thompson then served on the Social Security Board, 1941–42; staff for United States Labor Department, 1942; United States Adjutant General's Office, 1942–1946; and then member and chair of the Michigan state Prison Commission for Women. During and after World War II she worked as a civilian employee of the U.S. Army in Washington D.C. and in Europe.