Blood operators around the world face multiple challenges as they aim to meet current and future transfusion needs. Those that depend on voluntary, non-remunerated (VNR) donors, such as Canadian Blood Services, continue to strive to ensure sufficiency of the blood supply as the donor base continues to age and ethnic diversity of the patient population requires increasing diversity of the donor base. Moreover, increasing global demand for immunoglobulins has augmented pressure on blood operators to ensure the security and sufficiency of domestic source plasma through increased collections. Recruiting and retaining younger and racialized donors to meet blood and plasma needs today and into the future continues to be a challenge for many blood operators. We argue that social science research is needed to effectively address these challenges.
Read articles from the Blood Components Working Party and get to know our new ISBTPresident, Lin Fung, a little better. All in this quarter's issue of Transfusion Today. 🩸
