The need for a sufficient supply of safe blood is constant and globally there is an ongoing need for effective blood programs as they are critical to support patient management. The role of the donor/donation screening lab is fundamental to the protection and maintenance of the donor inventory and supply since it performs the screening of donors prior to collection of a donation to determine if the donor is ‘suitable’ to be able to donate on that occasion with the end goal of providing safe blood products for transfusion. 

Any donation screening laboratory would want to provide the most consistent, accurate, and reliable results possible.
Learn in this episode how an effective donation screening program can provide the basis to ensure the collection of donations only from those donors considered suitable to donate, and then deliver safe, high-quality blood and components which minimize risks to recipients.

 

About our Speaker: 
Dr. Alan Kitchen has been an independent consultant in blood safety and infectious disease screening since leaving the English blood service (National Health Service Blood and Transplant - NHSBT) in 2017. Initially trained in Transfusion Science, holds a Ph.D. in Virology from the Academic Department of Medicine, Royal Free Hospital, University of London, UK. Had worked in the English blood service for 40 years, over 30 of which were spent working directly in the field of Transfusion Microbiology. Prior to leaving NHSBT was a Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of the NHSBT National Transfusion Microbiology Reference Laboratory. Previously Head of Microbiology at the North East Thames Regional Transfusion Centre, running both an operational screening laboratory and a small research program. Currently, Secretary of the UK Standing Advisory Committee for Transfusion Transmitted Infections, a long-standing member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel for Transfusion Medicine, and a member of the newly formed WHO Blood Regulatory, Availability and Safety Advisory Group.