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

Brought to you in partnership with the Centre for Blood Research, this week's Stories worth sharing is focused on research into a new class of anticoagulants. Anticoagulants, or blood thinners, are medicines used to treat patients who experience unwanted or excess blood clotting. Between clotting and bleeding, there exists a delicate balance. If blood cannot clot effectively, the risk of bleeding increases. If blood clots too easily, there is a risk of heart attack, stroke and other serious conditions. Recent research being undertaken in Dr. Ed Pryzdial’s laboratory at the University of

To give our research trainees an opportunity to showcase their research, while honing their writing skills, Canadian Blood Services teamed-up with Science Borealis and the Centre for Blood Research, to launch our first-ever Lay Science Writing Competition. “It’s important for researchers to be able to explain what they do in an engaging and understandable manner to those who don’t work in research. This competition is a great opportunity for trainees to hone their skills in public science communication.” —Dr. Dana Devine Canadian Blood Services Chief Scientist Whether it was the chance to be

Tackling the gaps in blood safety Canadian Blood Services is committed to blood safety because lives depend on it. To reduce the risk of infectious disease transmission from donor to patient, donors are extensively screened for risk factors prior to their donation. Every blood donation is tested for specific infectious disease agents (pathogens) known to be transmissible through blood. These are just some of the many measures Canadian Blood Services employ to keep the blood supply safe. Despite these safeguards, the risk of infectious disease transmission, though very low, remains. Testing for

At Canadian Blood Services, blood safety is paramount. Screening donors for infectious diseases is an important part of our multi-layered approach to blood safety. One such infectious agent that is known to be transmitted through blood transfusion is Human T-cell lymphotropic viruses (or HTLV). Since 1990, all blood donations in Canada have been tested for HTLV, and since then, there have been no identified cases of HTLV transmission by transfusion. The rate of HTLV in Canadian blood donors has not changed in over 20 years of monitoring, and most donations that test positive for HTLV are from