Donated red blood cell units are a vital component of patient care, supporting patients with a wide variety of disorders. However, not all blood units are the same, and the benefit they can deliver to a patient can vary from unit to unit. Read on to learn about a unique device developed in a research laboratory at the Centre for Blood Research that can sort stored red blood cells based on their “squeezability”. This reflects how well red blood cells can squeeze their way through the circulation after a transfusion and could help identify “super-storers”.

For patients who have cardiac surgery, the risk of severe blood loss is high if they have a condition called acquired hypofibrinogenemia — this means they have an undersupply of an essential blood clotting protein called fibrinogen. Doctors aim to minimize their bleeding with a fibrinogen replacement product, either cryoprecipitate or fibrinogen concentrate, to restore clotting factors to normal levels. A recent study that compared both products could have an impact on how cardiac patients are treated in Canada.

“There is absolutely no evidence of transfusion transmission for COVID-19, or any other coronavirus,” says Dr. Steven Drews, associate director of microbiology at Canadian Blood Services.

Congratulations to Dr. Aditi Khandelwal, winner of the 2019-2020 Lay Science Writing Competition. Today’s post features her heartfelt winning entry.

The Centre for Innovation is delighted to announce the winner of the 2019-2020 Canadian Blood Services Lay Science Writing Competition. Read on to find out who won and when you can read their heartfelt winning entry.

Do you know of an individual whose contributions might be worthy of the Canadian Blood Services Lifetime Achievement Award? To receive this honour, a nominee’s landmark contributions must be recognized as both extraordinary and world class in the field of transfusion or transplantation medicine, stem cell or cord blood research in Canada and/or abroad. Nominations are open until May 19, 2020.

The 2020 competition for one of the Centre for Innovation’s most exciting and impactful research funding programs is now open. The Intramural Research Grant Program is a long-standing program that supports research to improve the safety and efficacy of blood products and the blood system in general.

Although it doesn’t happen often, sometimes patients will have a bad reaction during or after a blood transfusion. Surveillance systems set up to monitor the safety of the blood supply in Canada keep track of incidents like these so that issues potentially affecting patient safety can be identified. A recently published guide on reporting adverse transfusion events, available on Canadian Blood Services’ professional education website, helps make the reporting process easier to understand.

Welcome to 2020! Take a look back with us by checking out the five most visited R.E.D. blog posts in 2019.

When doctors select compatible red blood cell units for transfusion into a patient, they don’t consider the sex of the patient and whether the donor is the same (sex-matched) or opposite sex (sex-mismatched). But a study led by Dr. Michelle Zeller, Canadian Blood Services medical officer and assistant professor in the department of medicine at McMaster University, suggests that the role of donor sex in red blood cell compatibility may be worth a closer look.