An interactive virtual tour of blood product manufacturing at Canadian Blood Services

Understanding how blood products are made is an important part of educating health professionals. Doctors, nurses and lab technologists need to understand how blood from a donor is transformed into life-saving red blood cells, platelets, plasma and plasma protein products and how Canadian Blood Services ensures that these blood products are safe and effective for the treatment of Canadian patients. Learning about this process is highly visual and ideally involves visiting a Canadian Blood Services production facility to witness this process first-hand. But for many learners this is not an option: some learners do not live near a production facility, Canadian Blood Services does not have the resources to host all learners, and unexpected events such as the COVID-19 pandemic make this difficult. Learners need a virtual alternative that can be accessed anywhere, anytime, and allows them to learn at their own pace. The goal of this project is to develop an interactive online learning tool that allows health professionals from a variety of backgrounds to take a virtual tour of the blood component manufacturing process at Canadian Blood Services and follow the lifeline from donor to patient.

BODNAR, Melanie

Canadian Blood Services

BloodTechNet Award Program

Alberta

$20,000