Red blood cells are like delivery trucks. They deliver oxygen to the vital organs in our body. Iron is the flatbed of the truck which holds the oxygen in place. Iron is a key ingredient to build red blood cells and when you don’t have enough iron, your body doesn’t make enough red blood cells. This is called anemia. We get iron from the foods we eat such as meat, leafy green vegetables and legumes – all rich in iron. Our body loses iron when we lose blood, so women are at the highest risk for low iron since blood is lost monthly during childbearing years. Image Imagine a woman’s iron stores as

Canadian Blood Services’ Donation Physician Network (DPN) connects clinical care physicians and provides access to educational resources including webinars on leading practices, clincial case studies, literature and emerging issues. In the spirit of international collaboration, experts in organ donation and transplantation from the U.K. and Australia recently shared lessons they have learned over the past decade as part of a series of webinars hosted by the DPN. Lessons from afar Dr. Helen Opdam of Australia and Dr. Dale Gardiner of the U.K. provide valuable perspectives in their presentations

Congratulations to Canadian Blood Services' Dr. Jason Acker, who was awarded the University of Alberta Graduate Students’ Association Graduate Student Supervisor Award at a ceremony on March 22, 2019. This award recognizes "those faculty members who excel in the supervision of graduate students”. What makes this award even more special – Dr. Acker was nominated by one of his graduate students, Ruqayyah Almizraq. We chatted to Dr. Acker to learn more. Image Dr. Jason Acker and Ruqayyah Almizraq at the University of Alberta Graduate Students’ Association award ceremony Q: Tell us more about this

For thousands of years, traditional medicine placed blind trust in phlebotomy, which involves the withdrawal of blood from a patient for therapeutic purposes.1 Considering the paradigm of medical knowledge at the time established by Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine himself, there was some plausibility to this practice: if illness was caused by an imbalance in the four humours that course throughout our bodies, then removal of excess humour (blood) would be the cure.1 Galen, an avid follower of Hippocrates, employed the most lethal weapon to perpetuate this notorious medical malpractice: pen

The 2018 Canadian Blood Services’ James Kreppner Award has been awarded to Timothy Caulfield, professor and research director in the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta.   Valued at $50,000, the award will support Professor Caulfield’s project to analyze the marketing practices of private cord blood banks, assess their claims, and consider how regulatory tools can help ensure services marketed are done in a scientifically informed and evidence-based manner.    Image “The entire Health Law Institute team is thrilled about this award, and we truly appreciate the opportunity to dig

Do you know someone who has made an outstanding contribution to the blood system in Canada? Who can be nominated? Recipients of the Canadian Blood Services Lifetime Achievement Award are individuals whose landmark contributions are recognized as both extraordinary and world class in the field of transfusion or transplantation medicine, stem cell or cord blood research in Canada and/or abroad. To be nominated for the Canadian Blood Services Lifetime Achievement Award, an individual must have contributed significantly to improving the safety and/or quality of blood, blood products, stem cells

Canadian Blood Services, Trillium Gift of Life Network and the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program partnered to host the Deceased Organ Donation Symposium that took place at the Critical Care Canada Forum (CCCF) on November 7 – 8, 2018. The CCCF is a national forum attended by hundreds of health care professionals, primarily physicians, working in critical care. The Deceased Organ Donation Symposium is an opportunity for these health care professionals to engage in discussions about relevant and emerging topics in deceased donation. A key event at the symposium was the

Publication supports the critical care community in donor identification and referral allowing more potential organ donors to save more lives, and more donor families to be enabled to fulfill their loved one’s wishes Just published in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia: Potential organ donor identification and system accountability: expert guidance from a Canadian consensus conference A Q&A with lead author Dr. Samara Zavalkoff Deceased donation rates in Canada lag behind leading countries. A key area of focus to improve the system for all Canadians is to ensure health care professionals are