EBA Strategy 2023-2026

EBA members share a vision of a Safe and Sustainable Blood Supply for Europe.

This vision is underpinned by five Core Values

  1. Patient Care
  2. Donor Health
  3. Voluntary Non-Remunerated Blood Donation
  4. Openness through Information Sharing
  5. Excellence through Evidence

These values guide all EBA activities, which can be grouped into six key measures:

  1. Contribute to the availability, quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of the blood supply
  2. Influence European Policy
  3. Promote European Strategic Independence – Plasma
  4. Support Sustainability
  5. Focus on All European citizens
  6. Enable continuous improvement

1 Contribute to the availability, quality, resilience, safety, and cost-effectiveness of the blood supply

EBA members are stronger together.

Acting as a combined collaborative force, EBA members work together to maintain and improve the availability, quality, resilience, safety, and cost-effectiveness of the blood supply in Europe.

The donors and patients of Europe benefit from this efficient and strong collaboration amongst European blood services, which will continue to be developed and maintained by EBA.

Donor health

Ensuring the well-being of the donor in connection to donation is a prime task for blood services. The European Blood Alliance will continue to support members by:

  • Facilitating best practice in the selection and protection of donors to ensure a stable and healthy donor base population is developed and maintained.
  • Supporting research of donor health and behaviour to ensure safe donation
  • Liaising with donor organisations

Patient care

Providing safe blood products to all patients who need these as therapies is the core of the EBA’s members business. As patient care and wellbeing is the ultimate goal of all EBA members’ operations, EBA will support members provision of high-quality blood products by:

  • Facilitating the continued best practice of members in the efficient mitigation of risks, validation of manufacturing processes, accurate characterisation of products that match the recipient needs, and careful patient monitoring.
  • Continuing to maintain close contact with patient organisations to ensure their needs are understood and considered.
  • Supporting members’ evolving activities and innovation, including the development of ATMPs and other SoHO deriving from blood.

2 Influence European Policy

EBA’s authority to act as its members’ voice is appreciated and recognised by regulators and legislative bodies because of the evidence-based information and sourcing of experts provided by EBA.

As the proposed EU SoHO Regulation and future implementing legislation pass through the legislative pipeline, from discussion, through adoption, to implementation, the upcoming period is of critical importance to EBA and its members.

These new rules will create new regulatory bodies and new relationships with existing one. EBA will continue to advocate on behalf of members to shape and support this new ecosystem.

EBA will continue to advise and provide expert input to the EU institutions, elected representatives, national health authorities, competent authorities, and other stakeholders in the blood community on all matters where it can contribute to a safer and more sustainable blood supply in Europe.

EBA will continue to monitor and act on all relevant legislative frameworks to help ensure EU legislation provides the necessary framework for a safer, more secure, and more cost-effective blood and tissue and cell supply for the citizens of Europe.

3 Promote European Strategic Independence – Plasma

Securing an adequate supply of plasma for fractionation in Europe and consequently plasma derived medicinal products continues to be of prime importance.

Ensuring increased availability of this strategic resource sourced from European Voluntary Non-Remunerated Donors continues to be a key objective for the EBA, and EBA will work towards achieving this objective in the interests of both patients and donors.

EBA will support improvement initiatives at all stages of the plasma value chain, from donor recruitment, retention, reactivation, and health management, through plasma collection and processing, to fractionation and PDMP use.

4 Support Sustainability

A sustainable blood system is a critical component of resilient healthcare systems. EBA will continue to support members develop and maintain sustainable practices in a number of areas, including

  • Talent/Recruitment

EBA members employ over 30.000 people. EBA will support Blood Establishments recruit and retain staff.

  • Contingency Planning

Contingency planning remains an important focus of EBA members, in line with their unwavering commitment to patient care and donor health.

EBA will continue to facilitate Members sharing knowledge around best practice in business continuity management arrangements, including ISO22301, and assist members prepare and maintain SoHO entity emergency plans.

  • Appropriate Use / PBM Optimal Use of Blood: supporting Patient Blood Management (PBM) programs

Blood provides lifesaving therapies from a scarce source and should be used where it will benefit the patient. EBA is dedicated to demonstrating the value of proper use of blood products and will continue to support projects for evidence-based PBM.

  • Adopt sustainable environmental practices

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries in a global partnership.

EBA will support the sharing and implementation of best practices by both members and the EBA secretariat to align with the SDGs, reduce their environmental impact, and secure a zero-carbon, affordable, and healthy future in a livable world.

  • Increase awareness of VNRD and the value of blood components to patients

Regular voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors are the cornerstone of safe and sustainable national supplies of blood and blood products which are sufficient to meet the transfusion requirements of the patient population

EBA and EBA members remain committed to VNRD for sustainable blood, tissues and cells supply for the benefit of donor and patient safety.

EBA will advocate for VNRD, both as an independent body, and in partnership with donor and patient organisations with shared values, the aim being to inform the political decision makers at EU and national level on the risk of eroding the current altruistic donor base.

  • Acting on a Global stage

Blood safety is still a global challenge, particularly in the low- and middle-income countries where the prevalence and incidence of transfusion-transmissible infections among both the populations and donor pool remain high but the systems to assure safety and quality are not yet established.

EBA’s mission is in line with global strategies to advance universal access to safe and quality assured blood products based on VNRD.

EBA will continue to collaborate with members of the global blood community with shared values (such as ISBT, the World Health Organisation, FIODS, and the Patient International Blood Alliance) to enable the expertise of EBA members benefit patients and donors throughout the world.

5 A focus on All European citizens

Equal access to blood products

All EU citizens have equal rights to health treatment.

EBA will actively seek to increase the number of European citizens we represent by increasing the number of EBA member Blood Establishments. During the journeys towards membership, EBA will actively seek to listen to the voices of the blood community in those countries.

EBA will continue to support members’ efforts to strive for qualitative and quantitative self-sufficiency of SOHO’s in all European regions.

EBA will continue to contribute to the availability, quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of the blood and tissue supply for ALL the citizens of Europe by developing and maintaining an efficient and strong collaboration amongst European blood and tissue services.

EBA will support members’ efforts to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion in their activities and initiatives to cultivate a donor base that more fully reflects Europe’s population.

EBA will continue to support members’ efforts to link and share use of rare blood databases throughout Europe.

6 Enable continuous improvement

EBA will continue to support members as they strive for excellence by being innovative, adopt state-of-the-art processes and practices, implement actions through evidence-based methods, and encourage continuous learning.

Recognising that excellence in the blood products supply chain cannot be characterised merely by high productivity and quality, EBA supports Members to make evidence based decisions to contribute to a well-functioning professional healthcare system.

EBA will continue to support and promote networking opportunities where EBA members can meet and discuss continuous improvement activities.

EBA will look to improve communication processes to ensure that all information emanating from EBA-supported activities, particularly Working Groups, can be made readily available to all staff in member blood establishments.

Positions taken by EBA will continue to be based on evidence thereby avoiding bias in conclusions.

Contact

Office: C/o BLSI, Clos Chapelle-aux-Champs, 30 – bte 1.30.30
B-1200 Brussels, Belgium - Tel +32 2 8806216

Registered address: Plesmanlaan 125, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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