2015 proceedings of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's State of the Science in Transfusion Medicine symposium

Abstract

On March 25-26, 2015, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute sponsored a meeting on the State of the Science in Transfusion Medicine on the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD, which was attended by a diverse group of 330 registrants. The meeting's goal was to identify important research questions that could be answered in the next 5-10 years, and which would have the potential to transform the clinical practice of transfusion medicine. These questions could be addressed by basic, translational, and/or clinical research studies and were focused on four areas: the three “classical” transfusion products (i.e., red blood cells, platelets, and plasma) and blood donor issues. Prior to the meeting, four Working Groups, one for each area, prepared five major questions for discussion along with a list of 5-10 additional questions for consideration. At the meeting itself, all of these questions, and others, were discussed in Keynote lectures, small group breakout sessions, and large group sessions with open discourse involving all meeting attendees. In addition to the final lists of questions, provided herein, the meeting attendees identified multiple overarching, cross-cutting themes that addressed issues common to all four areas; the latter are also provided. It is anticipated that addressing these scientific priorities, with careful attention to the overarching themes, will inform funding priorities developed by the NIH and provide a solid research platform for transforming the future practice of transfusion medicine.

Heterogeneity of blood processing and storage additives in different centers impacts stored red blood cell metabolism as much as storage time: lessons from REDS‐III—Omics

“…Finally, this study demonstrates the relevance of metabolomics technologies in transfusion medicine and the potential transformative impact that data generated through this technology can have when correlated with transfusion outcomes, as recommended by recent meetings on the state of science in transfusion medicine sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Food and Drug Administration. 32,53 …”

Goal-directed Hemostatic Resuscitation of Trauma-induced Coagulopathy

“…Recently, the State of the Science in Transfusion Medicine Working Groups, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, identified those research questions that could transform the clinical practice of transfusion medicine in the next 10 years. 38 One of these questions was whether use of a viscoelastic assay (ie, TEG and TEM) to guide transfusion improves outcomes when compared with traditional coagulation testing (ie, INR, PTT, platelet count, fibrinogen level).…”

Bio‐inspired nanomedicine strategies for artificial blood components

“…As recently highlighted in the ‘State of Science in Transfusion Medicine’ by the NIH, there is a significant clinical interest in donor-independent blood cells for transfusion applications. 267 While one arm of the research is currently focusing on generation of blood cells ex vivo, from precursor cells and stem cells using specialized bioreactors and cell culture technologies, a parallel arm is continuing to work on synthetic nanomedicine approaches for blood cell substitutes. 268-272 Robust research and rigorous pre-clinical and clinical evaluation of these technologies can lead to fully artificial blood substitutes for transfusion applications in the future.…”