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February's newsletter includes these highlights:

International news

• General
  • XIVth International Haemovigilance Seminar (April 25-27, 2012, Montreal, Canada) First time outside Europe
  • US, French, & Japanese researchers identify proteins responsible for 2 new blood group systems
  • Platelet Rich Plasma mania? (Multiple news items)
  • 'It has always been my dream to nurse in a developing country....' Experiences in Siem Reap Provincial Hospital, Cambodia
• Canada
  • CSTM launches new redesigned website
  • Bloodtechnet learning competition returns Feb. 24, 2012
  • Héma-Québec's Public Cord Blood Bank 1st Canadian cord blood bank to be awarded FACT Accreditation
• Australia
  • Draft 'Patient Blood Management Guideline: Module 3 - Medical' (Open for consultation until 16 Mar. 2012)
• Ireland
  • Health agency to restrict funding to 2 support groups for those with transfusion-associated HCV
• Saudi Arabia
  • Shari'ah Medical Commission's protracted process forces expat to drop transfusion error case
  • Serious call to deal with medical errors in Saudi hospitals
• UK
  • Plans to introduce opt-out organ donation supported by almost two-thirds of Welsh people
  • London's Air Ambulance first in UK to carry blood
  • Bristol Heart Institute awarded £297,000 to research improved blood transfusion methods
  • British Committee for Standards in Haematology, Transfusion Task Force, et al. Guidelines for validation and qualification, including change control, for hospital transfusion laboratories. Transfus Med 2012: pp. 5-43) Pub online: 15 Feb 2012.
  • Plans to secretly test 30,000 NHS blood transfusion recipients amid escalating CJD fears
  • IBMS Blood Group Serology Durham Conference (23 Mar. 2012)
• USA
  • ARC and Dell launch first-of-its-kind social media Digital Operations Center for emergencies
  • Halpern v. Wake Forest Univ. Health (Fascinating case: Med student diagnosed with 'Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder' dismissed from medical school for unprofessional conduct. He sued, lost, & appealed, again losing.)
  • NIH asks for comment on blood donor policy for men who have sex with men
  • ARC fined $9.6 million for unsafe blood collection

Industry news

• Alba Bioscience: New £7m investment to fund expansion in Scottish subsiduary
• CSL: Quarantining of human albumin & product recall
• Immucor executives in the news:
  • New CFO Dominique Petitgenet gets $375K base salary + perks
  • CEO Bill Hawkins (former Medtronic CEO) to chair public-private partnership to bring regulatory sciences center for med technology to Minnesota

Diseases in the news

HCV

• Ireland: Health agency to restrict funding to 2 support groups for those with transfusion-associated HCV

vCJD

• UK: Plans to secretly test 30,000 NHS blood transfusion recipients amid escalating CJD fears

Resource library

• UK Blood Transfusion & Tissue Transplantation Services: Transfusion Evidence Library Survey 2012
• New TM blogs:
  • Blood donor questions about heterosexual sex (Musings on cultural differences in predonation screening)
  • The sound of silence (Musings on blood safety regulations)

Journals

• January 2012 issue of Transfusion: All papers are free full text.
• Eclectic selection of papers including
• Two in Transfusion that stimulated this month's blogs:
  • Red blood cell products: consideration of the discrepant temperature ranges permitted for storage versus transport.
  • Number of recent sexual partners among blood donors in Brazil: associations with donor demographics, donation characteristics, and infectious disease markers.
• Paper that discusses "What if shelf life becomes a consideration in ordering red blood cells?"

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March 9, 2012
Pat Letendre, TraQ coordinator

TraQ Newsletter - February 2012

INDEX

TraQ & BC PBCO | Global News | Diseases | Industry News | Resource Library - Links | Journals

• TraQ home | BC PBCO

For the latest news see What's new - chronological

General

• XIV^th International Haemovigilance Seminar (April 25-27, 2012, Montreal, Canada) First time outside Europe
  • Preliminary program
• US, French, & Japanese researchers identify proteins responsible for 2 new blood group systems (22 Feb. 2012)
  • Helias V, et al. ABCB6 is dispensable for erythropoiesis and specifies the new blood group system Langereis. Nat Genet 2012 Jan 15;44(2):170-3.
  • Saison C, et al. Null alleles of ABCG2 encoding the breast cancer resistance protein define the new blood group system Junior. Nat Genet. 2012 Jan 15;44(2):174-7.
• Platelet Rich Plasma mania?

Vancouver, Canada: Cosmetic uses emerge for PRP (Press release, 15 Feb. 2012)

Conference abstract (American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day): PRP helps heal elbow injuries (12 Feb. 2012, San Francisco)

Florida, USA: PRP increasing in popularity (9 Feb. 2012)

Background: Is PRP an effective healing therapy? / PRP - What's behind the hype?

• 'It has always been my dream to nurse in a developing country....'Experiences in Siem Reap Provincial Hospital, Cambodia (8 Mar. 2012, NursingTimes.net)

Canada

• CSTM launches redesigned website
• Bloodtechnet learning competition returns Feb. 24, 2012 | Timeline
• Héma-Québec's Public Cord Blood Bank 1st Canadian cord blood bank to be awarded FACT Accreditation (6 Mar. 2012) (Héma-Québec's public cord blood bank)

Australia

• Patient Blood Management Guideline: Module 3 - Medical (Draft is open for consultation until 16 Mar. 2012)

Ireland

• Health agency to restrict funding to 2 support groups for those with transfusion-associated HCV (3 Mar. 2012)

Saudi Arabia

• Shari'ah Medical Commission's protracted process forces expat to drop transfusion error case (6 Mar. 2012)
  • Serious call to deal with medical errors in Saudi hospitals (3 Jan. 2012) Quote: “Commissions usually consist of legal experts and doctors...."

UK

• IBMS Blood Group Serology Durham Conference (23 Mar. 2012)
• Plans to introduce opt-out organ donation supported by almost two-thirds of Welsh people (2 Mar. 2012)
• London's Air Ambulance first in UK to carry blood (5 Mar. 2012)
• Bristol Heart Institute awarded £297,000 to research improved blood transfusion methods (23 Feb. 2012)
• British Committee for Standards in Haematology, Transfusion Task Force, et al. Guidelines for validation and qualification, including change control, for hospital transfusion laboratories. Transfus Med 2012: pp. 5-43) Pub online: 15 Feb 2012.
• Plans to secretly test 30,000 NHS blood transfusion recipients amid escalating CJD fears (Those with >80 blood transfusions 'most at risk') (5 Feb. 2012)

USA

• ARC and Dell launch first-of-its-kind social media Digital Operations Center for emergencies | Related video (7 Mar. 2012)
• Halpern v. Wake Forest Univ. Health (28 Feb. 2012) (Fascinating case: Med student diagnosed with 'Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder' dismissed from medical school for unprofessional conduct. He sued, lost, & appealed, again losing.)
• NIH asks for comment on blood donor policy for men who have sex with men (23 Feb. 2012)

• Alba Bioscience: New £7m investment to fund expansion in Scottish subsiduary (7 Mar. 2012)
• CSL: Quarantining of human albumin (4% and 20%) | Recall notice (9 Mar. 2012)
• Immucor executives in the news:
  • New CFO Dominique Petitgenet gets $375K base salary + perks (27 Feb. 2012) | What a CFO does
  • CEO Bill Hawkins (former Medtronic CEO) to chair public-private partnership to bring regulatory sciences center for med technology to Minnesota (29 Feb. 2012)

* Also see TraQ's Industry News

Diseases in the news

• Ireland: Health agency to restrict funding to 2 support groups for those with transfusion-associated HCV (3 Mar. 2012)

• UK: Plans to secretly test 30,000 NHS blood transfusion recipients amid escalating CJD fears (Those with >80 blood transfusions 'most at risk') (5 Feb. 2012)

* Also see TraQ's 'Disease clearinghouses' in top menu

UK Blood Transfusion & Tissue Transplantation Services: Transfusion Evidence Library Survey 2012

New TM blogs:

Blood donor questions about heterosexual sex (Musings on cultural differences in predonation screening)

The sound of silence (Musings on blood safety regulations)

*See TraQ's Resource Library | Nursing resources | Literature clearinghouses | Links | Continuing education | Jobs | Video library

Free full text | (* 1 or more Canadian authors)

• Note: January 2012 issue of Transfusion: All papers are free full text.
• Below is a selection of papers, some with a background context to peak your interest:
  • Bölke E, Axel Scherer A. Sickle cell disease. CMAJ 2012 Feb 21;184(3). (Clinical image)
  • Campbell Lee S, Shaz B, Arena R, Sloan S, Fung M, Ramsey G. Red blood cell products: consideration of the discrepant temperature ranges permitted for storage versus transport. Transfusion. 2012 Jan;52(1):195-200.
    • The focus of this study was to determine if there is significant data to prohibit short-term storage of red blood cells (RBCs; i.e., <24 hr) at 1 to 10^oC rather than 1 to 6^oC, which occurs not uncommonly when RBCs are stored in a cooler for a patient during surgery.
  • Downes KA, Shulman IA. Pretransfusion testing practices in North America, 2005–2010: an analysis of the College of American Pathologists Interlaboratory Comparison Program J-Survey Data, 2005–2010. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2012 Mar;136(3):294-300.
  • * Drackley A, Newbold KB, Paez A, Heddle N. Forecasting Ontario's blood supply and demand. Transfusion. 2012 Feb;52(2):366-74.
    • Given an aging population that requires increased medical care, an increasing number of deferrals from the donor pool, and a growing immigrant population that typically has lower donation rates, the purpose of this article is to forecast Ontario's blood supply and demand.
  • Patavino GM, et al. for the NHLBI Retrovirus Epidemiology Study-II (REDS-II), International Component. Number of recent sexual partners among blood donors in Brazil: associations with donor demographics, donation characteristics, and infectious disease markers. Transfusion 2012 Jan;52(1):151-9.
    • Brazilian blood centers ask candidate blood donors about the number of sexual partners in the past 12 months. Candidates who report a number over the limit are deferred. We studied the implications of this practice on blood safety.
  • Sayers M, Centilli J. What if shelf life becomes a consideration in ordering red blood cells? Transfusion 2012 Jan;52(1):201-6.
    • The importance of understanding how patient outcomes might be compromised by the transfusion of older blood was underscored in a recent editorial by Ness who characterized the problem as "the most critical issue facing transfusion medicine." He also made the point that planning by blood centers, in anticipation that studies might reveal the superiority of fresher blood, was essential.
  • * Shehata N, Burns LA, Nathan H, Hebert P, Hare GM, Fergusson D, Mazer CD. A randomized controlled pilot study of adherence to transfusion strategies in cardiac surgery. Transfusion. 2012 Jan;52(1):91-9.
    • It is important to determine the optimal Hb concentration for RBC transfusion for patients undergoing cardiac surgery because increased mortality has been associated with the severity of anemia and exposure to RBCs. Because a definitive trial will require 1000s of patients, and because there is variability in transfusion practices, a pilot study was undertaken to determine adherence to proposed strategies.