Rare Blood Provision Working Group

Improve the provision and availability of rare blood products through knowledge sharing and collaborative strategies.

The Rare Blood Provision Working Group focuses on addressing challenges in providing rare blood products for blood establishments, considering factors such as guidelines, blood group frequencies, logistics, testing facilities, and donor-recipient population compatibility.

Objectives and activities

The working groups aims to:

• To jointly improve practices, facilities and exchange of information to increase the availability of matched blood products. Rare blood products encompass both red cells and platelets.
• To share knowledge and benchmarking to improve the provision of rare blood.
• To explore cooperation amongst the EBA members and internationally such as with the ISBT, EDQM and WHO.

The working group organizes its efforts through subgroups, each focused on a specific aspect of rare blood provision, such as donor recruitment, testing strategies and methods, logistics, international exchange and cryopreservation, and transfusion guidelines and practices. These subgroups work on long-term goals and annual deliverables approved by the EBA Board. The working group employs digital tools for meetings and collaborations, minimizing travel costs and environmental impact. It also organizes workshops based on member needs, with the next proposed workshop to be held in Bristol in Spring 2023, covering topics like genotyping implementation, sickle cell disease, provision of typed platelets HLA/HPA, cryopreservation, rare blood donor recruitment, and retention.