Hospital Newsletter
Events and updates
Topic Teaching: Complicated Immunohematology Case Studies and ABO Discrepancies Studies
March 16, 2021 | Webinar
CSTM 2021: "Surfing the Waves of Change"
May 13-15, 2021 | Virtual Conference
Serology education to improve transfusion practice
Serology education to improve transfusion practice (PDF)
Dr. Matthew Yan, hematologist and transfusion medicine specialist with Canadian Blood Services, recently led a project to help standardize red blood cell (RBC) serology education and fill learning gaps for post-graduate medical hematology trainees in Canada.
The objective of the project, which is funded through the BloodTechnet award, was to create an Internet-based tool to deliver curriculum about blood groups and antibodies. This tool would be useful for blood bank and medical laboratory technologists, and it could serve as a library of interesting antibody cases to help people share their expertise and knowledge.
The courses in this tool introduce individuals to immunohematology and the foundations of blood bank compatibility testing. Trainees that complete this course should be able to do the following:
- Describe the principles of RBC agglutination
- Interpret the results of an ABO/RhD grouping test
- Perform a simple antibody investigation, and
- Outline an approach to selecting RBC units for patients with autoantibodies and other complex transfusion needs.
The tool that was developed by Dr. Yan’s team is Learn Serology. It’s an online curriculum with six modules that includes an interactive module for completing an RBC antibody investigation panel. The course contains the following modules:
- Module 1: Basics of Immunohematology
- Module 2: Group and Screen and Crossmatch
- Module 3: Minor Blood Group Antigens
- Module 4: Approach to Antibody Investigations
- Module 5: Approach to Autoantibody Investigations
- Module 6: Miscellaneous Topics
Interested trainees and technologists hoping to improve their transfusion practices could log on to Learn Serology to take these courses.
To read more articles, please visit the BloodNotes section of blood.ca
Process improvement case study between Canadian Blood Services and Valley Regional Hospital
Process improvement case study between Canadian Blood Services and Valley Regional Hospital (PDF)
Canadian Blood Services has a robust hospital customer feedback process for problems related to packaging, delivery, quality, labelling and communications. As part of that process, our Dartmouth distribution staff continuously review feedback and track cases in order to identify frequently reported problems. Tracking these cases helps to determine where problem solving, and continuous improvement can be initiated.
In 2019, our Dartmouth distribution site received a total of 32 reports of red blood cell (RBC) units with positive direct antiglobulin test (DAT) results from hospitals in the Maritime provinces. About 63 per cent of those reports were from one facility, and the numbers were higher than those documented at other Canadian Blood Services sites.
Although DAT is not carried out routinely on a donated blood unit, when a hospital reports a positive DAT on a donor RBC unit to Canadian Blood Services — usually discovered during their patient compatibility testing investigation — that donor is coded for a DAT on their next donation. The donor’s case will be reviewed by Canadian Blood Services when a repeat positive DAT is identified to assess potential risk to their health. Also, if a donor has repeatedly positive DAT (x3) the donor is deferred. So Canadian Blood Services wants to avoid false positives since it can result in the loss of a donor.
To determine the frequency of the positive DAT, our Dartmouth distribution site conducted an internal investigation and collaborated with the Valley Regional Hospital in Nova Scotia to review the cases. Between December 2019 and January 2020, the hospital recorded nine positive DAT feedback, and they stored samples from the implicated donor units and performed a saline tube DAT for comparison. About eight of the nine samples tested negative by saline tube test.
As a result of the investigation, the hospital identified that that the increased rate of positive DATs at the hospital seemed to relate to differences in reagent and method for performing the DAT and may reflect false positive reactions or increased sensitivity with the MTS™ Gel testing system. They advised our Dartmouth staff that they would now also be performing a saline tube DAT on a unit before submitting future hospital customer feedback reports. After implementing this change in February 2020, Valley Regional Hospital (Nova Scotia) has only reported two additional donor RBC units with a positive DAT during the rest of 2020.
We greatly appreciate the contributions and collaboration of Valley Regional Hospital staff who worked on this process improvement initiative with us. This collaboration has reduced the discard of RBCs, reduced hospital customer feedback reports, and donor testing activity.
To read more articles, please visit the BloodNotes section of blood.ca
The 16th Annual Transfusion Medicine Education Symposium
The 16th Annual Transfusion Medicine Education Symposium (PDF)
The symposium, titled Game, Set, Match: Finding blood for Difficult to Match Patients, is on April 14th, 2021. This year, the symposium will be presented as a webinar. Participants can register to watch on a computer, mobile device or as a group at your hospital.
Canadian Blood Services and the Ontario Regional Blood Coordinating Network (ORBCoN) have partnered once again to offer this annual educational event to develop the transfusion skills of professionals working in community hospitals to improve patient outcomes.
The symposium is open to all healthcare professionals involved in the ordering, issuing and/or transfusing of blood and blood products, including physicians, nurses, technologists as well as residents, trainees and students.
"Patients with complex red blood cell antigen matching could pose challenges for any hospital. That’s why we’re bringing together experts to discuss current standards of care and approaches to providing blood, especially in the acute setting,” says Dr. Waseem Anani, Canadian Blood Services medical officer and co-chair of the symposium organizing committee. “The goal is to offer transfusion guidance to the clinical teams that encounter conditions that impede rapid issuing of blood.”
Presentations include:
- Transfusing patients with sickle cell disease: first principles and best practices, Dr. Jacob Pendergrast, University Health Network.
- Optimizing transfusion support for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), Dr. Yulia Lin, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
- Out of order: pretransfusion testing and autoimmune hemolytic anemia challenges, Dr. Jonathan Mack and Melanie Tokessy, The Ottawa Hospital.
The virtual conference is free to attend, but registration is required. Participants can choose from two identical sessions, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
If you have any questions, please contact Amanda Nowry at Amanda.nowry@blood.ca or Tracy Cameron at tcameron@ohri.ca.
To read more articles, please visit the BloodNotes section of blood.ca.
Chief scientist Dr. Dana Devine takes on directorship at Centre for Blood Research
Chief scientist Dr. Dana Devine takes on directorship at Centre for Blood Research (PDF)
Canadian Blood Services’ chief scientist has been appointed director of the Centre for Blood Research at the University of British Columbia. This new role deepens Canadian Blood Services’ lasting collaboration with the centre and is part of Dr. Devine’s longstanding pursuit of bringing new discoveries to patients in meaningful ways.
“As one of the founders of the Centre for Blood Research, I’ve watched it grow over the years. In some ways, it feels like I’m coming full circle,” says Dr. Devine.
“It’s one of the largest academic blood centres in the world, and one of the most multidisciplinary. I’m really interested in ensuring it stays vibrant and keeps growing.”
Through a recently renewed collaboration agreement, Canadian Blood Services and the Centre for Innovation are proud to partner with the Centre for Blood Research on training, education and knowledge mobilization activities.
In addition to this new role, Dr. Devine recently finished a nine-year term as editor-in-chief of Vox Sanguinis, a peer-reviewed academic journal about transfusion medicine. She is also president-elect of AABB, a professional society for blood transfusion and cellular therapies, and will begin her term as president in October 2021. In that role, she will lead the board of directors in setting the strategic plan for AABB.
Learn more on blood.ca/stories.
To read more articles, please visit the BloodNotes section of blood.ca