The Blood Component Working Party aims to promote best practices, monitor trends and emerging developments, drive improvements, and enhance global awareness of blood component manufacturing and research.
Chairperson and committee
Chairperson: Denese Marks (Australia)
Vice Chair: Susanne Marschner (USA)
Junio Vice Chair: Linda Larsson (Sweden)
Secretary: Lacey Johnson (Australia)
Treasurer: Jason Acker (Canada)
Education Officer: Susanne Marschner (USA)
Junior Education Officer: Ben Wood (Australia)
Membership
The Working Party has 35 members from 22 countries. 3 new members were welcomed in the reporting period.
Meetings
Strategic planning workshop - ISBT Blood Components WP: Hybrid
- Held on Saturday 30 April 2025: University of Edinburgh, Scotland
- Activities included review of survey results, planning for 2025/26 including webinars and future conference sessions, review of sub-group activities, review of trends in international practice, website, recruitment of new members
- Eszter Herczenik joined virtually for an hour to allow planning with ISBT Office
- Outcomes: Decision on webinar topic for 2025 (update on non-DEHP blood bag systems) and to focus on manuscript for evidence-based practice.
Annual business meeting: Hybrid
- Held on Saturday 31 May 2025: Milan, Italy
- Topics: Update on key activities to members, treasurer’s report, updates from Manufacturers and individual sub-groups met for activity planning.
- A new sub-group Secondary Processing Methods, was formed at the meeting to include topics such as component irradiation and washing
Mid-year meeting: Virtual
- Held on 25 September 2025
- Updates on sub-group activities
- Planned non-DEHP blood bag webinar and chose speakers
- Decided on website updates
- Planned educational sessions for KL Congress (two were submitted)
QC sub-group meeting: Virtual
- Held 25 August 2025
- Discussed compiling a comprehensive list of global regulations, including quality control details for each blood component. A draft table will be reviewed at the KL meeting in June 2026. Validation and QC of equipment will be discussed once the global QC overview table is generated.
Evidence based practice subgroup meetings:
- The sub-group members met virtually on 18 August; 22nd september; 20 October; 4 November and 1 December in 2025, then 26 January, 9 February, 23 February and 26 March 2026.
- A draft manuscript outlining the minimum information guidelines for blood and blood component processing and storage is being prepared. These are intended for those conducting studies, and writing and reviewing papers in the field of transfusion science and medicine.
Blood Components Working Party Committee Workshop, 30 April 2025: Committee members (from left to right) Jason Acker, Linda Larsson, Susanne Marschner, Denese Marks, Geraldine Walsh and Ben Winskel-Wood during the workshop meeting.
Activities during the period
Collaboration and Partnerships: WP members reviewed and provided input into the Maldives’ National Standards for Blood Transfusion Services / Health Facilities in May 2025.
Education and Outreach:
The WP organised two educational webinars in 2025, which are accessible through the WB Components homepage. In addition, an extensive list of Scientific Publications has been added to the website. The following webinars were presented:
- Cryopreserved platelets – what we believed, what we now know, and where to next? April 2, 2025: The speakers were A/Prof Lacey Johnson and Prof Michael Reade, moderated by A/Prof Denese Marks. ~300 members registered for the webinar.
- Non-DEHP blood bag system for red blood cell storage November 10:2025: The speakers were Dr Geraldine Walsh and Dr Christie Vermeulen, moderated by Dr Susanne Marschner.
Training / Workshops / Events Edinburgh face to face strategic planning workshop as outlined above.
Other Activities: Two submissions were prepared for sessions in the 2026 Congress in Kuala Lumpur.
- Maximising platelet supply- novel approaches to inventory management
- Updates and Perspectives on Cord Blood Processing for Red Cell Transfusion Therapy. The submission on Cord Blood was accepted and will be inlcuded as a session in the Kuala Lumpur Congress.
Working Party Publications
- One publication in draft from the Evidence-based Practice working group.
- The manuscript outlines the minimum information guidelines for blood and blood component processing and storage. These are intended for those conducting studies, and writing and reviewing papers in the field of transfusion science and medicine. These guidelines are designed to ensure product and process information critical to the interpretation of findings are included in scientific reports. We hope these minimal information guidelines will encourage greater rigour in reporting studies in our field.
Challenges and Opportunities
- Barriers encountered: travel costs for face-to-face meetings
- Opportunities for development: Not all working party members have joined a sub-group. We are still aiming for further participation from low- and middle-income countries. In 2026/27 we will try different strategies to achieve this.
Summary
- Our major achivements in 2025/26 were hosting two webinars with high attendance, and our first face-to-face strategic planning workshop
- The key outcomes from the reporting period were increased membership and enagement updated webisite, increased engagement leading to new memberships
