Canadian Blood Services strategy refresh takes a look into to the future  

Canadian Blood Services is in the midst of an exercise to refresh its five-year strategic plan. In support of this, an extensive internal and external stakeholder consultation took place in the fall of 2017. This consultation included a series of stakeholder roundtable discussions held in regions across the country and a web-based survey sent to external stakeholders and employees. 

In total, 120 external stakeholders (senior leaders of pan-Canadian health organizations, patient organizations, hospital, medical and research/scientific sector leaders) and 500 employees were included in the consultation activities. In addition to the stakeholder consultation activities, a series of internal “think tanks” were formed to address key strategic questions and future opportunities. 

As part of this exercise, participants were asked to propose what might first appear to be radical ideas to transform our business. One such idea is the use of electric autonomous aircraft, or drones, to deliver blood components to hospitals using low air traffic routes. Did you know that drones are already being used in one part of the world to deliver blood components? Read more

The results of this future-thinking work will serve to shape Canadian Blood Services’ new five-year strategic plan, which will be available publicly in fall 2018. Special thanks to those who shared their valuable time and insights to help shape this important work.