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EBA Workshop Integrated Transfusion Service Models

Berlin, 9-10 February 2016

Invitation
The EBA Benchmarking Working Group is happy to invite you to the Integrated Transfusion Service Model Workshop. The purpose of the Workshop is to explore in more detail the service models in use in five of EBA’s member blood services, and to identify the opportunities that might exist for EBA members and their hospital customers to improve performance by changing or developing their own model.
 
Where: Charité University Hospital, Chariteplatz 1, 10117 Berlin
Start: 9 February 2016, 14.00h
End: 10 February 2016, 15.30h
For whom: EBA Member Chief Executives, Supply Chain Directors, managers with responsibility for Performance Improvement and EBA Member Clinical and Customer Service Directors will also be very welcome.
 
Registration
Members interested in joining this workshop, can send an email to the EBA Secretariat: info@europeanbloodalliance.eu. There will be a charge for the facilities involved, which will be around €100 per registration. After registration, you will receive more information on the hotel arrangements and how to transfer the costs of the workshop.

More information and the programme of the Workshop can be read here (EBAse link).

Poland in Court over safety standards for human blood

Today, the European Commission decided to refer Poland to the Court of Justice of the EU for not transposing certain provisions of EU legislation laying down the quality and safety standards for human blood (Directives 2002/98/EC2004/33/EC and 2005/61/EC). These Directives lay down a number of provisions aimed at ensuring the safety of blood, including rules for the minimum age of donors, conditions for importing blood from third counties, and reporting obligations of blood establishments.

To date, Poland has not informed the European Commission about the adoption of national legislation comprehensively transposing the relevant EU Directives. Poland had to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directives 2002/98/EC and 2004/33/EC by 8 February 2005, and the Directive 2005/61/EC by 31 August 2006, as well as to communicate to the Commission the relevant texts of the provisions of national law transposing these Directives. Instead, the draft new law on the donation of blood and blood treatment remains the subject of legislative procedures at governmental level.

The European Commission, therefore, considers that Poland has failed to fulfil certain obligations under Directives 2002/98/EC, 2004/33/EC and 2005/61/EC on quality and safety standards for human blood and blood components, namely:

  • On the eligibility of donors: Polish rules concerning admissibility of minors are less protective than the EU rules (in particular, donors below the age of 17 are permitted).
  • On imports of blood and blood components from third countries: Polish legislation does not transpose EU legislation requiring equivalent traceability and testing standards to those applicable to blood and blood components collected in the EU.
  • The required content of the annual activity reports of blood establishments is not fully reflected in the Polish legislation.


Source: EC Press Release, 10/12/2015

Joëlle's Blog: Moving toward 2016!

The Collaborative Procurement year 2015 ended with a Collaborative Procurement Seminar, held in Frankfurt in December 2015. The high participation rate (17 blood services, 14 EBA Members) confirms that EBA Members are keen to develop Collaborative Procurement. The seminar demonstrated that expertise is there. Willingness as well. 2016 will be about liaising both and melting them into actions!
From the seminar, a set of proposals arose, which will be discussed in the EBA Executive in early 2016. Those proposals will be built around two main topics:

1. Developing collaborative dialogue
  • between EBA Members
  • between cross functional teams
  • with the industry, to identify areas of improvement
  • with the industry, to benefit from innovation
2. Identify collaborative procurement opportunities

I do hope that those proposals, on top of the current Eurobloodpack 2, Tubes and Standard Laboratory consumables projects outcomes, will fulfill EBA Members expectations and support the involvement of EBA Members experts in various groups and activities.

I wish you a fantastic Christmas and New Year! See you in 2016!

Best regards, Joëlle

EDQM Report on Quality indicators for clinical use of blood

The EDQM published a report on the Quality Indicators for monitoring the clinical use of blood in Europe [pdf, 400kb].This report is the result of a survey by CD-P-TS members on use of blood components both at national and hospital levels. It was carried out in 2014 and requested data from 2012. The questionnaire was very ambitions covering from national level blood use to wastage and usage per key indications and even transfusion outcomes. 
Outcomes not surprising
Kari Aranko, EBA Executive Director noted slight disappointment with the outcomes: “only 12 countries replied and in many sections only 2-5 provided data. However, the report covers in total information from 224 blood establishments and 367 hospital blood banks from these countries”. The findings were also not surprising to him: ”the wide variation of transfused units per 1000 population or per hospital beds, are not new.  EBA’s benchmarking working group and Patient Blood Management in Europe (PaBloE) project group have reported alike variation in with newer data. It is worth noting though that the PaBloE group’s 2014 data (ISBT 2015 abstract) suggest a shift of blood units transfused in surgery to onco-haematology when compared to the EDQM 2012 data,” he stated: “ This demonstrates the importance to have current data for benchmarking”.

Jukka Partanen awarded the honorary title of Professor

The President of the Republic of Finland awarded the honorary title of Professor to Jukka Partanen, Research Director of the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service (FRCBS), on 11 December 2015. 

Ph.D., Docent Jukka Partanen has been acting as Research Director of the Blood Service since 2002. He graduated as Master of Sciences in 1985, received his doctoral degree from the University of Helsinki in 1988, and was appointed docent in the University of Helsinki in 1991.
He has an extensive research career in the tissues and cells field, where he first studied the molecular background of the complement factor C4 deficiencies in the immune system, the development of determination methods based on recombinant DNA techniques for tissue typing of organ and tissue transplants and later the genetic and immunological issues in autoimmune disease and in stem cell and organ transplantation. 

In recent years, Jukka Partanen (pictured left) has been involved specifically in the creation of new lines of research focusing on donor health and cell biology of red cells and thrombocytes at the Blood Service. He has also actively expanded the Blood Service's research operations beyond laboratory medicine by, for example, launching a sociological study related to blood donation in collaboration with the sociologists of the University of Helsinki.
Jukka Partanen’s extensive scientific career includes 178 peer-reviewed original scientific publications. He has supervised or otherwise provided active background support for more than 20 doctoral theses, and acted as preliminary examiner or opponent for more than 10 doctoral theses. He has also acted as peer reviewer of articles published in international scientific publications series and participated in the evaluation processes of various international research funding applications.  
Picture courtesy of FRCBS

DG SANTE to reorganise

click to enlarge
New Directorate-General Xavier Prats Monné announced to his staff members in a memo that the organisation of the DG SANTE will change. At this moment, the Unit D4 seems to have moved and also the Head of Unit, Dominik Schnichels, moved to another unit. The image above can be clicked to enlarge view.
 

Australian Red Cross Blood Service: New CEO

Shelly Park has today been announced as the new CEO of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, and will begin the role from 7 March next year.
Australian Red Cross Blood Service chair, Dr David Hamill, welcomed Ms Park to the role and said the board believed she was best placed to lead the Blood Service as it continued its progress to becoming a leading-edge organisation.
“For the past eight years Shelly has been the Chief Executive of Monash Health (previously Southern Health), a health service which provides a comprehensive range of primary, secondary and tertiary health care services to a population of over one million people in the south-east of Melbourne across 40 care locations,” Dr Hamill said.
“Over this period Shelly has repositioned Monash Health to be recognized as one of the leading health services in Australia achieving international recognition as one of only four Academic Health Science Centres in Australia.
“Shelly is recognized for her strong leadership, business transformation capabilities, delivery of financial results and the ability to grow businesses to meet strategic objectives.”
Prior to her current role, Ms Park was Executive Director of Monash Medical Centre at Southern Health and Executive Director of Jessie McPherson Private Hospital. Her previous positions have also included General Manager of Medical and Surgical Services at Christchurch Hospital (New Zealand), and General Manager at The Princess Margaret Hospital in Canterbury, New Zealand.
Dr Hamill also thanked outgoing CEO Jennifer Williams for her outstanding service since 2009.
“I wish to take this opportunity to recognise and thank Jennifer Williams, who will be finishing up when Shelly starts in early March 2016, for her invaluable contributions over seven years as Chief Executive,” Dr Hamill said.
“During this time Jennifer has transformed the operations of the Blood Service, provided strong leadership and direction and the organisation is now positioned as one of the top performing Blood Services internationally.”

EBA Calendar of Events

December
  • EBA Executive Meeting | 18 December | Copenhagen

January 2016
  • DoHeCa | meeting of the Project Group | 14-15 January | Berlin, Germany | contact chair Peter van den Burg
  • PLUS | Stakeholder Consensus Conference | 14-15 January | Estoril, Portugal | Kari Aranko will attend on EBA's behalf

February
  • EBA Benchmarking Workshop | Integrated Transfusion Service Models | 9-10 February | Berlin, Germany | Information: Steve Morgan | Registration: EBA Office
  • EBA Executive | Teleconference | 15 February 10.30-12.00  

March
  • ABC | ABC Annual Meeting | 12-14 March | Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront,   Jacksonville, Florida | All EBA members invited

April
  • ABO | Points of Contacts & CE meeting | 5-6 April | Zagreb, Croatia
  • EBA Executive | Exec meeting | 7 April | Zagreb, Croatia
  • EBA | 37th Board Meeting | 7-8 April | Zagreb, Croatia | contact: Willemijn Kramer

May
  • EBA Executive | Teleconference | 23 May | 10.00 - 11.30

June
  • EBA Executive | Executive Meeting | 28 June

August
  • EBA Executive | Teleconference | 22 August  | 10.00 - 11.30

October
  • EBA Executive | Exec meeting | 6 October | TBD
  • EBA | 38th Board Meeting | 6-7 October | TBD | contact: Willemijn Kramer
  • EBA Executive | Teleconference | 31 October  | 9.30 - 11.00 

December
  • EBA Executive | Exec meeting | 6 December| TBD

 
Copyright © 2015 European Blood Alliance, All rights reserved.


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