Canadian Blood Services’ Innovation and Portfolio Management annual progress report for 2021–22 is now available. The report recaps the collaborations in research and education that take place every day to support our shared purpose: to help every patient, match every need and serve every Canadian.

Canadian Blood Services’ Clinical Guide to Transfusion co-editor Dr. Gwen Clarke is stepping back from her role after 20 years with the publication. Since 2002, Clarke has helped shape the Guide into one of the most visited resources on our professional education website.

Discoveries made by a research team from McMaster University are providing vital information about a rare clotting reaction associated with COVID-19 vaccines that use adenovirus vectors.

We’re excited to launch a brand-new look for our professional education website, Canadian Blood Services’ resource hub for health-care professionals.

In August this year Dr. Alvin Zipursky, a Canadian physician and researcher, died at the age of 90. He was renowned for improving children’s health in Canada and around the world and made research discoveries that were central to developing a life-saving treatment for a deadly disease called rhesus hemolytic disease, also known as Rh disease. Canadian Blood Services employees with a special connection to Dr. Zipursky describe how his drive to eradicate Rh disease worldwide continues to inspire their work today.

The latest evidence on managing patients with massive hemorrhage, a major cause of potentially preventable deaths, is now available in a recently updated chapter of Canadian Blood Services’ Clinical Guide to Transfusion.

A powerful collaboration between blood services, research institutions and industry leaders promises to advance blood transfusion therapy to new levels of precision and safety.

Canadian Blood Services recently published its annual Surveillance Report, a summary of monitoring efforts related to transmissible infection testing in donors; possible transfusion-transmitted infections in recipients; and new, emerging pathogens. Surveillance also includes monitoring of donor safety.

Transfusions can be a life-saving treatment for people living with sickle cell disease but finding compatible blood can be a challenge because Black and racialized donors—the ones with the best potential to match most SCD patients— are underrepresented in the donor pool. Read about initiatives that can support this patient group by improving the red blood cell inventory.

People with a low platelet blood count, such as cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, can receive a platelet transfusion to boost their platelet count. But what is the best approach to platelet transfusion? In its latest publication, the International Collaboration for Transfusion Medicine Guidelines examines the quality of seven platelet transfusion guidelines.