The Blood Supply Management Working Party aims to optimise the use of donated blood and blood components while reducing wastage across the entire supply chain.
Chairperson and committee
Chairperson: Rada Milos Grubovic Rastvorceva (North Macedonia)
Secretary: Demewoz Tadesse (Ethiopia)
Educational Officer: Ruhi Mehra (since February 2026)
WP subgroup/project leaders
- Unmet needs for blood transfusion - Amita R.Nair/Aikaj Jindal (India)
- Supply Chain Challenges – Impact on Transfusion Medicine Services survey - Susan Nahirniak (Canada)
- Remote Site Blood Management project - Graham Murdock (Australia)
- Benkadi Blood Project in a civilian and military hospitals - Rodin Simo (Cameroon)
- Rh ‘D’ negative red cell questionnaire (Emergency Blood Usage) - Rick Toccheti (Australia)/Neil Backman (UK/Australia)
- Guideline on good practices in BSM - Kathleen Rowe (USA)/Elena Lazarova (Belgium)
- Educational activities – Ruhi Mehra (India)
Membership
Blood Supply Management Working Party has 55 members representing 25 countries and 5 continents. There are 12 young professionals. We welcomed 12 new members since April 2025, but we lost some of the members due to retirement and expired membership.
Meetings
Two business meetings were held in the reporting period. The first was a face-to-face business meeting held in June during the ISBT 2025 Congress in Milan. Members who could not participate on-site joined the meeting virtually. The second meeting was held virtually on 6 February 2026.
The June 2025 business meeting was attended by a total of 31 delegates representing 14 countries (onsite and online) and the February 2026 meeting had participation from 33 members representing 15 countries (pictures from the meetings in attachment).
There were multiple online meetings held with the different subgroups/project members/leaders since April 2025 till March 2026, most of them among the subgroups chair/s and participating members and/or WP Chairperson and project leaders.
The topics covered at the business meetings and its follow-up meeting include:
- 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
- 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 (Emergency Blood Usage)
- Remote Site Blood Management project
- Guideline for good practices in BSM
- Transfusion Today July 2025 InFocus contribution
- ISBT BSM WP scientific session for the ISBT 2026 Congress in Kuala Lumpur
- Other educational activities
There were several email exchanges between the Chairperson and the ISBT Central Office (CO) regarding applications from newly recruited WP members, as well as support for surveys, projects, meetings, and preparations for the Kuala Lumpur congress in relation to the BSM WP. The BSM WP Chairperson also held a meeting with Pierre Tiberghien, ISBT President and liaison to the ISBT Board for the BSM WP, to discuss the group’s activities. In addition, the Chairperson participated in two ISAC meetings, where brief reports on the work of the BSM WP were presented.
Activities during the period
The main achievements of the ISBT BSM WP during the period were as follows:
- Project subgroups were formed to support the ongoing project (7 subgroups), based on the shown interest of the BSM WP members.
- BSM WP contributed at the Transfusion Today July 2025 issue with texts, video and quiz on Link to this issue of Transfusion Today: https://isbtweb.foleon.com/transfusion-today/transfusion-today-july-2025-copy-1/in-focus
- 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 presented as an oral presentation at the 35th Regional ISBT Congress held in Milan, Italy. The work on in extenso manuscript for submission in Vox Sanguinis is ongoing.
- Survey on Unmet needs for Blood Transfusion in low- and middle-income country was finalized and shared among ISBT members, results were analyzed (122 responses from 5 continents covering all WHO regions) and abstract “Unmet need for blood transfusion - a global survey-based study of ISBT Blood Supply Management Working Party” is prepared and accepted for an oral presentation for the ISBT 2026 Congress in Kuala Lumpur. Work on in extenso manuscript for submission in Vox Sanguinis is ongoing.
- Proposal for BSM WP Scientific Session for ISBT 2026 Congress in Kuala Lumpur was accepted. This session will include speakers from 4 different continents:
- Benkadi Blood Project – Optimising Blood Transfusion Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, Rodin Simo (Cameroon)
- EDQM Blood Activities and Contingency and Emergency Planning, Rada Milos Grubovic Rastvorceva (N. Macedonia/France)
- Canada’s National Plans for Management of Shortages of Labile Blood Components and Immunoglobulin Products, Susan Nahirniak (Canada)
- Blood Component Wastage – Global Patterns, Causes and Solutions, Aparna Krishna (India)
- Project on Remote Site Blood Management (RSBM) trial Work has continued since last year across several project sites. Due to unexpected complexity, sites are being launched sequentially. The first site in Australia began in February, supporting two remote locations 1,300 km away. Temperature‑logging was added to the RFID system, and all equipment is now ready. The next site in India still requires technical adjustments and software development. The IT Working Party is also working on RFID Guidelines, and Graham Murdock has been asked whether a joint presentation on RFID for Remote Site Blood Management later this year would be possible.
- Benkadi Blood Project in a civilian and military hospitals The project strengthens transfusion systems in Cameroon through governance reform, digitalization, and training. After launching at Hôpital Militaire de Région n°2 (HMR2) in Douala, the project deployed a digital IMS, trained staff, and integrated haemovigilance. It later expanded training to 48 professionals across 17 hospitals, positioning Benkadi as a scalable regional model.
- Supply Chain Challenges: Impact on Transfusion Medicine Services” survey was revised according to subgroup/project members suggestions and split into three sections: Demographics, Supply chain challenges pertaining to reagents and equipment and Supply chain challenges pertaining to donors and components/products.
- Guideline on good practices in BSM The aim of this project is to standardize practices to ensure a safe, efficient, and sufficient blood supply while addressing existing gaps in data and literacy. Detailed operational plan for this project was developed and internal survey among subgroup/project members was shared.
- 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.
- New WP Educational Officer was appointed Ruhi Mehra was appointed as a BSM WP 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. Subgroup/project group was formed to support educational activities.
Contributions/publications from the BSM WP members
- ISBT 2025 Congress in Milan: “Challenges and lessons learned in Blood Supply Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A survey-based study of ISBT Blood Supply Management Working Party” R. M. Grubovic Rastvorceva, J. K. Ansah, N. Ertugrul Oruc, M. W. Smid, M. Sayers on behalf of the ISBT Blood Supply Management Working Party (oral presentation)
- “Information management system and data to optimize blood bank in Sub-Saharan Africa: A case study of a Hospital in Douala, Cameroon“ R. Simo (poster presentation)
Transfusion Today July 2025 issue In Focus: Blood Supply Management Working Party
- Supply Chain Challenges - Susan Nahirniak
- Blood Component Wastage - Aparna Krishna
- Remote Site Blood Management - Graham Murdock, Vimlesh Dhir
- Unmet needs for blood transfusion in India – Aikaj Jindal, Amita R. Nair
- The Benkadi Project - Rodin J. Simo K.
- Video by BSM WP Chair - Rada M. Grubovic Rastvorceva
- BSM quiz - Demewoz Tadesse and educational project group
