Hi dear colleague, I¨m just returning from summer holidays.

First of all I must tell you that we don¨t have any patient blood management progam yet.

I think that soon we will start to discuss about this item.

In this moment I don¨t  have all official data, but  I can tell you in advance that in Uruguay little country with 3,5 miilion people,  there are about 100.000 blood donations per year , it is not enough, we are under the international estimates about donation.  We must reach to 120.000 blood donations per year.  Blood donors are not remunerates, only 5% really volunteers.

In most important hospitals are implemented  plateletpheresis donations with  last generation machines.

I¨m in debt with blood cells use data.

I¨ll be in touch about this.

Best regards.

Nilo Bentancor 

Dear Nilo,

Thank you very much.

It is interesting to hear from your experience of a country which struggles to become self-sufficient regarding blood supply.

It might be an interesting exercise to see whether blood is also wasted in your country and therefore, a smaller increase in blood supply combined with better use might also bring the desired effect?

Looking forward to hearing from you again.

Best,

Markus

Dear Markus:

I¨m looking for more information and soon I¨ll comment about it.

Best regards.

Nilo

Dear Markus,

Quite a while has passed since you raised your question and I do not know if you have all that you need,  In the US for a number of years there has been a major  biannual survey of blood collection and utilization conducted by the AABB and published by the Department of Health and Human Services. For many of us this is an important reference guide.    I have attached the latest copy of the NBCUS, the National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey published by Health and Human Services.  This contains a lot of useful information non collection and utilization including components in US. The data represent blood center and hospital collections and component utilization representing blood collections of roughly 17,000,000 units. A;lso has data on historical trends. As you know there has been a pronounced decline in collections and blood use in US over the past several years. You can search for the NBCUS and find prior versions of the report also.

The most recent version of the survey 2013,  was conducted and published by  AABB and is I believe available to AABB members only so I am not sure I can post it.  But you can contact AABB directly.

Hope this is useful. 

All the best,

George

Dear George,

Thank you very much for your important answer.

Yes, I have access to the NBCUS data set and I agree: This is indead very helpful.

More countries should publish their data and even more should share the methodology of their national data aquisition as well as provide free access for all researchers to the national pool of data.

It could help developing countries or new colleagues in the field to avoid some of the mistakes we´ve made in the past  ... ;-))

 Best,

Markus  

Dear Markus,

In  looking through my files for another task I came across three papers i have attached: one on the German Red X, one on the EDQM report on Blood components and testing, and the last on a German hospital study.  Thought they might be of interest to other readers of your question.  The EDQM report applied to Europe and there are probably individual country reporting systems in other countries. It is always interesting to see the differences in collections and use of blood and blood products.

George

Dear George,

Thanks a lot. I can add another publication from 2013.

Best,

Markus