29 November 2016 (Tuesday) - Transfusion News email

The Transfusion News email arrived this morning. Some interesting snippets including:

Drones Capable of Delivering Blood Products

November 22, 2016
Drones—small pilotless aircrafts—are capable of delivering packages cheaply and are not limited to passable roads or constrained by traffic. Rwanda started using drones to deliver blood products this year. Researchers in the United States recently investigated the use of drones to deliver blood products that need to be maintained at a constant temperature during transport. […] [Read More]

Mutating Haematopoietic Stem Cells May Cure Sickle Cell Diseases

November 16, 2016
Sickle cell disease and β-thalassaemia are caused by mutations in the β -globin gene. Previous studies have shown that transplants of normal β-globin genes into haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) may cure the disease; however, this process is considered inefficient. New advances recently published in Nature point towards an approach that may improve the efficiency of […] [Read More]

Laboratory Testing is Suggested Before Intravenous Immunoglobulin is Given to Neonates

November 9, 2016
Although intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) use is documented to treat a wide range of severe disorders in adults, IVIG use in neonates is not well-characterized. A retrospective study recently published in TRANSFUSION describe IVIG use in neonates in the NICU at one Canadian hospital. Only 37 neonates received IVIG over 11 years. [Read More]

Personally I’m intrigued with the thought of blood delivery by drone. It takes an inordinate amount of time to get blood a relatively short distance. The drones in the article didn’t seem to have that much of a carrying capacity, but I wonder just how long it will be before a day’s blood delivery can be flown in this way…