Chairperson and committee
Chairperson: Rada Milos Grubovic Rastvorceva (North Macedonia)
Secretary:
Demewoz Tadesse (Ethiopia)
Membership
As of March 31, 2025, the Working Party has 57 members representing 24 different countries and 5 continents. There are 15 young professionals.
Meetings
Two business meetings were held in the reporting period. The first was a face-to-face business meeting held on June 24, 2024, at the Barcelona Conference Centre in Barcelona, Spain during Barcelona ISBT congress. Members who could not participate on-site joined the meeting virtually. The second meeting was held virtually on 30 January 2025.
The June 2024 business meeting was attended by a total of 19 delegates representing 10 countries (F2F and online) and the January 2025 meeting had participation from 25 members representing 13 countries (pictures from the meetings in attachment).
There were 15 online meetings held with the different subgroups/project members / leaders since May 2024 till March 2025, first 5 meetings in May/June 2024 for the Chairperson to get familiar with ongoing projects and members. The other meetings were held during October 2024 – March 2024 with different projects groups/leaders in order to move forward with the ongoing projects and to prepare an abstract for the ISBT 2025 meeting in Milan.
The topics covered at the business meeting and its follow-up meeting include:
- Update on survey on Blood Supply Management during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Magnitude and associated factors of unmet needs for blood transfusion among patients in low- and middle-income countries survey
- Supply Chain Challenges – Impact on Transfusion Medicine Services survey
- Benkadi Blood Project in a civilian and military hospitals
- O Rh ‘D’ negative red cell questionnaire
- Remote Site Blood Management project
- BSM WP Newsletter and Transfusion Today post
- Other project suggestions for the BSM WP: Good practices in BSM
- ISBT BSM WP scientific session at June 2025 Milan Congress
There was a series of e-mail exchanges between the Chairperson and ISBT Central Office (CO) with respect to applications of newly recruited WP members, support for surveys/projects/ meetings and Milan congress preparation with respect to the BSM WP. There was a questionnaire sent to BSM WP members to express their interest in which project they would like to contribute, which will strengthen the BSM WP members contribution to different projects and allow different members to focus on different projects.
BSM WP Chairperson had a meeting with Pierre Tiberghien, ISBT President and the liaison for the ISBT BSM WP to the ISBT Board, to discuss the BSM WP activities.
BSM WP Chairperson participated in two ISAC meeting and gave a brief reports on the work of the BSM WP.
Activities during the period
The main achievements of the ISBT BSM WP during the period were as follows:
- Abstract “Challenges and lessons learned in Blood Supply Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A survey-based study of ISBT Blood Supply Management Working Party” was prepared based on a Blood Supply Management during the COVID-19 pandemic survey. The abstract was accepted for an oral presentation at the 35th Regional ISBT Congress to be held in Milan, Italy from 31 May till 4 June 2025. The work on in extenso manuscript for submission in Vox Sanguinis is planned in second half of 2025.
- Survey on Unmet needs for Blood Transfusion in low- and middle-income country was finalised and shared with BSM WP for their feedback and review. The final version was agreed and sent to ISBT CO to be converted into survey monkey format. Hopefully, the survey will be sent out to ISBT members from low- and middle-income countries by the end of April / beginning of May 2025.
- Supply Chain Challenges: Impact on Transfusion Medicine Services” survey was finalized and converted into survey monkey format. It was sent out to ISBT members in July 2024, but the respond rate was low. There were only 22 responded until November, of which only 4 answered all questions. It was shared with BSM WP members for their input, and further revision and modification are needed. BSM WP Chairperson met with the project leader in March 2025, and it was decided that survey should be stopped for now and further developed.
- The Remote Site Blood Management (RSBM) trial, initiated in 2023, is being developed across three potential regions: India, Africa, and Australia. In India, PGIMER has expressed interest in hosting the trial at one of their sites, with support from Strides Software. The trial proposal has been shared with the Head of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at PGIMER Chandigarh, and we are currently awaiting feedback. The Indian trial will focus on RBC units stored in hospital wards that are remote from the central blood bank. In Africa, RAMM Technologies, a South African medical software provider, is prepared to customize their blood tracking system to support the trial. This version will focus on Emergency Use Only (EUO) blood units stored at hospitals located far from blood banks. ISBT assistance is needed to help recruit a suitable blood establishment to participate in the trial. In Australia, appropriate RFID-based blood management software and a haematologist familiar with the technology are in place. This trial will also focus on EUO units stored at physically remote sites. We are currently seeking confirmation of the trial design and the involvement of a local blood establishment. The project requires a defined trial design and metrics (to be developed by a team from the BSM Working Party), RFID hardware including fridge units and tags (to be provided by SATO), compatible software applications, and centralized, well-managed blood establishments willing to participate. A volunteer subgroup is being formed to help advance this project.
- Benkadi Blood Project in Civilian and Military Hospitals Rodin Simo, member of the BSM Working Party, launched the Benkadi Blood Project in 2019 to address severe blood shortages in sub-Saharan Africa. After collecting data across the region, the team recognized the need for a comprehensive solution to improve blood transfusion systems. This led to the development of Benkadi Blood, an information management system tailored to the realities of sub-Saharan Africa. The system enables data collection for research and decision-making, supports donor recruitment and retention through social media and technology, and improves overall blood bank management with better visibility of the supply chain. A beta version was piloted in two hospitals in Douala, Cameroon—a civilian and a military facility—both of which lacked such systems. Military hospitals were included due to the high demand for blood from war-injured patients. Currently self-financed, the project has stalled due to lack of funds. Although ISBT Central Office couldn’t provide support, Rodin Simo is actively seeking alternative funding options.
- Recruitment drive for new WP members The successful recruitment drive on ISBT website continued to yield satisfactory results. During the reporting period, twelve new applications were received, and all applicants were selected as new members.
- Appointment of WP Educational Officer The WP secretary was appointed to this new role of WO Educational Officer and will serve as the contact points for the office for organization of a webinar or an eLearning activity, workshop during congresses and review of WP resources. A call for other volunteers from BSM WP was sent out to support this role of educational officer and support the BSM WP educational activities.
- Ongoing work by the ISBT BSM WP The BSM WP is developing a concept for a periodic Newsletter for WP members and working on a manuscript to submit to Vox Sanguinis “Challenges and lessons learned in Blood Supply Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A survey-based study of ISBT Blood Supply Management Working Party”, as well as, a text for Transfusion Today in July 2025 issue.
