Hosted by The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of NIH and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH) of the Department of Health and Human Services, the purpose is to identify current basic, translational, and clinical research priorities, that if addressed in the next 3-10 years, would increase and diversify the volunteer blood donor pool, identify which blood products from which donors would best match the needs of specific recipient populations, and help ensure safe and effective transfusion strategies. Six working groups have identified draft research priorities: 1) Blood donors and the supply; 2) Optimizing transfusion outcomes for recipients; 3) Emerging infections; 4) Mechanistic aspects of components and transfusion; 5) New methods in computational science for transfusion; and 6) Donor and blood recipient health disparities in transfusion medicine.
