Every two seconds in the United States, someone needs blood. Yet, only 3 percent of Americans donate blood. Given the importance of this vital resource, the healthcare community must do a better job of engaging more donors, reducing waste and aligning collection activities with patient demand.
At Becker's Hospital Review's 13th Annual Meeting, Abbott and Blood Centers of America (BCA) sponsored a workshop to discuss the future of the nation's blood supply and the potential of biotherapies to transform patient care. Scott Becker, founder and publisher of Becker's Healthcare, moderated the discussion with four blood supply experts:
- Joana Araujo, senior global marketing director, Abbott
- Debra BenAvram, chief executive officer, Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB)
- Chris Miskel, president and chief executive officer, Versiti Inc.
- Harpreet Sandhu, chief executive officer, Stanford Blood Center (Palo Alto, Calif.), and chairperson, Blood Centers of America
Three key takeaways were:
- To strengthen the nation's blood supply, engagement with younger donors is essential. Younger generations want to save the world, but current messaging about blood donation doesn't seem to resonate with them. "During the pandemic, blood donors tended to be people age 55 and above," Ms. Araujo said. "We surveyed 8,000 potential donors worldwide and learned that many young people believe that blood can be made artificially on a large scale. They don't view blood donation as a way to save lives."
In response, Abbott created a new campaign called Give Blood, Get Back, which changes the misconception that blood donation is transactional. The company has created TikTok videos, partnered with social media influencer Dr. Mike and created a mixed reality experience for donors based on the Microsoft HoloLens 2 technology. "Our goal is to make blood donation cool, and we want to partner with hospitals to bring that to life," Ms. Araujo said.
- As biotherapies evolve, the existing blood ecosystem can be used in new ways. Biotherapies like CAR-T cells may move from an autologous therapy to allogeneic therapies, which are universal blood products. "We can engage our donor community, create T-cells that are ready for any patient and reduce the time for care delivery," Ms. Sandhu said.
To support esoteric testing, Versiti has developed a specialized diagnostic lab. "We can do complex blood tests that other labs can't support," Mr. Miskel said. "In addition, with Versiti clinical trials, we can collect highly characterized samples and we already have the regulatory processes in place to support clinical trials."
- The healthcare sector can never take its eye off of blood safety. AABB focuses on standards and accreditation for every aspect of the blood system, from initial donor engagement all the way to the patient. "By the time a blood bag is hung for a patient, we must know that it's safe and it's the right blood for that person at the right time. All the pieces that go into that are so critical," Ms. BenAvram said.
Looking ahead, AABB has created new credentials for advanced biotherapies professionals to ensure that transfusion experts of today are building their knowledge for the future.
While it's exciting to think about moving today's transfusion medicine to tomorrow's biotherapies, transfusion medicine is the original biotherapy. "Blood is an essential medicine," Ms. BenAvram said. "There's no way to get it without the generosity of donors and we can't forget that our transfusion teams are also unsung heroes behind the scenes."