The inaugural America’s Blood Centers Blood Advocacy Week took place April 24th-28th. More than 400 individuals from ABC member blood centers, community, government, and industry partners participated in the virtual events throughout the week. During the Day on Capitol Hill, which took place on Day Three, 114 individuals from ABC member centers took part in 172 meetings with congressional offices. Additionally, more than 1,500 shares, likes, and interactions took place across multiple social media platforms using #BloodAdvocacy. ABC thanks our member blood centers, all 55 partners, and our sponsor Fresenius Kabi for making the week such a success. Recordings of the virtual events are still available for streaming at: www.BloodAdvocacyWeek.org. ABC encourages ongoing advocacy in the form of writing letters to members of Congress using the software available on the website.
Day One: Analyzing Trends Impacting the Blood Supply and What Must Change Moving Forward. The first day of Blood Advocacy Week featured Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Rebecca Free, MD, MPH describing findings from the 2021 National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey Report (NBCUS). She explained that the report included data on the impact of COVID-19 on blood collections and transfusions. The data suggested that the impact of COVID-19 was “transient.” Shana Hughes, PhD, MPH from the Vitalant Research Institute also presented on the importance of social science research to uncover the motivations of blood donors. She expressed the need for ongoing research and funding to focus on the donor perspective.
Day Two: Promoting Awareness of New Eligibility Criteria. Allie Van Dyke of The Blood Connection shared her blood center’s experience with implementing changes to the vCJD deferral. She explained the importance of communicating with a targeted approach to community partners to ensure messaging is reaching the right individuals such as The Blood Connection did with local soccer organizations, veteran’s organizations, and military groups. Peter Marks, MD, PhD from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research shared updates on the Assessing Donor Variability And New Concepts in Eligibility (ADVANCE) study and the revised HIV guidance. He explained that preprint data from the study is available the agency is hopeful that the final guidance will be issued soon after the agency received an estimated 200 comments. Benjamin Brooks from Whitman-Walker Institute shared the LGBTQ+ perspective on the changes to
the deferral criteria in the proposed HIV guidance and the need for the blood community to continue to partner with LGBTQ+ organizations to spread awareness of donor eligibility changes. Kody Keckler from Rep. Mike Quigley’s (D-Ill.) office also presented to express the Congressman’s ongoing support for a shift to individual donor assessments.
Day Four: When Time Matters – Saving and Enhancing Lives through Access to Blood. Audra Taylor from South Texas Blood & Tissue Center shared her organization’s work on their pre-hospital whole blood program and the development and activation of a “Walking Blood Bank” for emergency situations. Mary Homer, PhD from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) discussed opportunities for the blood community to partner with the agency on next generation blood products and how to build surge capacity. Eric Bank of the Harris County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) discussed their partnership with the local blood community and the importance of their pre-hospital blood program, while sharing insights on how to potentially partner with EMS groups nationwide. Jennifer Holter Chakrabarty, MD explained the importance of prioritizing transfusion in palliative care.
Day Five: Why Donor Diversity is Critical to Patient Lives. Theresa Pina of Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center explained the importance of ethnic and age diversity in her community. She shared her center’s work to engage and recruit donors to fit the unique needs of their diverse community. Sangeetha Lakshmanan, MPH, MSW form the Georgia Health Policy Center described the resources and toolkit developed (BloodDonorDiversity.com) to ensure a diverse blood supply for those with sickle cell disease (SCD) and thalassemia. Astrid Kyle Mack, MD from the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago discussed the hospital’s “Blue Tie Tag” program which allows donors to self-select to designate units to be directed to support children with SCD. They also screen donors for SCD trait. Sahil Sood, a student representing HOSA International, described how to attract and motivate young donors. He explained the importance of marketing and tailoring blood drives to younger generations to capture their attention and engage their friend groups. He also shared the importance and success of ABC’s partnership with HOSA. A video highlighting Blood Advocacy Week is available here.