Chairperson and committee
Chairperson: Vered Yahalom (Israel)
Vice Chair: Thierry Peyrard (France)
Secretary: Inna Sareneva (Finland)
Treasurer: Tanya Powley (Australia)
IBGRL liaison: Nicole Thornton (UK)
Past Chair: Christine Lomas-Francis (USA)
Special Advisor: Sandra Nance (USA)
Membership
There are 40 members in the Rare Donors Working Party (WP) representing 30 countries.
There are 40 members in the Rare Donors Working Party (WPRD) representing 30 countries. Five new members from 3 new countries joined the WP in 2024: Carlos Cotorruelo from Argentina , Maria Antonieta Nunez Ahumada from Chile, Beate Mayer from Germany, Graca Almeida from Portugal and Chiara Vendramin from UK.
All members are actively involved in their respective country’s rare donor programs or transfusion support for patients with rare blood. As outlined in the Terms of Reference for the Rare Donors WP, members are required to share the rare donor list from their country with the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory (IBGRL) which manages the International Rare Donor Panel (IRDP).
Meetings and Teleconferences
- The executive committee met 3 times; once on 22.06.2024 before the ISBT International meeting in Barcelona and virtually on 14.10.2024 and on 27.02.2025.
- One virtual meeting and 1 on site meeting were held with Eszter Herczenik the ISBT scientific officer to promote the Rare Donor webpage update.
- An official hybrid business meeting of the WPRD took place on 24.06.2024 in Barcelona, Spain. Meeting topics discussed included (but were not limited) to the following: mentoring programs and new rare donor programs support, educational materials, contributions to ISBT, reagents shipments for new rare donor programs, and working party webpage updates. A report of the International Rare Donor Panel (IRDP) activities was presented by Nicole Thornton with emphasis on the need to update the rare donor list by all WP members. All ISBT Working Party members presented data about the status of their Rare Donor programs with the Information based on a formatted survey. The survey's data by country is available on the WP webpage.
- E-mail communications among members were sent throughout the year. They provided an easy and effective way to seek information, assist in the search for rare blood, ship rare anti-sera to the recently established Rare Donor Latin American Group (GCIAMT), collaborate on scientific projects, and gather information in preparation for the ISBT congress and for the update of the ISBT WPRD webpage.
- The executive committee communicated frequently by e-mail including on the above-mentioned items.
Activities during the period
- Throughout the year Eduardo Muñiz Diaz (Spain) continued to mentor the Rare Donor Latin American Group (GCIAMT) to further develop their rare donor programs individually and as a collaborative group.
- Sandra Nance (USA) and Christine Lomas-Francis (USA) are correspondingly mentoring Moira Keogh (Ireland) and Ankit Mathur (India) to support the establishment of their rare donor programs. These are ongoing processes that will require long-term mentoring.
- The ISBT WPRD webpage update is led by Inna Sareneva (Finland) in collaboration with Eszter Herczenik (ISBT scientific officer). The update included the creation of a world map with pins and links to every WPRD member's rare donor program. Information on each country's donor criteria, infectious disease testing, and product specifications obtained through the 2022 WPRD survey is linked to each contributing country.
- Shipments of antisera from WP members to the GCIAMT were achieved following extensive preparations and logistic arrangements. Some of the shipments were made through an ISBT FedEx account.
- A survey was sent to WPRD members regarding transfusion policies to support patients with rare blood without the corresponding high prevalence antibody, methods, and regulations to search for rare phenotypes among donors and patients. The collected information was accepted as an oral presentation to the 35th Regional ISBT Congress in Milan, Italy and will be available as an additional resource on the ISBT WPRD webpage.
- A shared drive Excel file reference list was created by Mattew Yan (Canada) based on the reference list collected by Sandra Nance (USA). This resource is available to all WP members.
ISBT Education
WPRD educational contributions included:
- ISBT webinar on "The role and contribution of regional blood banks in a National Rare Donor Program: Malaysian and US Perspectives" was held on 30.04. 2024 (Moderators: Vered Yahalom and Thierry Peyrard). Presentations were given by Nor Hafizah Ahmad (Malaysia) and Margaret Keller (USA).
- ISBT 38th International Meeting; Barcelona 2024, Main congress
- Rare Donors WP session– "The Need for Rare Blood Knows No Borders" (Moderators: Vered Yahalom and Thierry Peyrard). Presentations were given by Nicole Thornton (UK), Eduardo Muñiz Diaz (Spain), Carlos Cotorruelo (Argentina), and Paula Gaviria Garcia (Colombia).
- Survey IgA donors and components – P604, presented by Margaret Keller (USA).
