What is the true meaning of Haemovigilance?

[Kaltun ZaZa]

What is the true meaning of Haemovigilance?

I have some knowledge and practice it on a day basis but what and who does it involve?

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

I have alerted my good friend Tony Davies to your question. He is a "haemovigilence guru" with the SHOT scheme, and he is going to answer your query ASAP.

[Kaltun ZaZa]

Thank you Malcolm

[Tonyd]

Perhaps not as 'asap' as Malcolm implied :-)

... but Haemovigilance is defined as "The systematic surveillance of the whole of the transfusion process in order to highlight adverse events and reactions, with the aim of improving safety of donors and patients"

So, it covers everything from taking the blood in the first place, through processing, storage, transport, testing, issue, administration, and months or years post-transfusion too in the cases of viral transmission.

You can imagine that the diversity of people involved in the process is immense, not just lab staff and clinical staff administering the components.

We have traditionally looked at process errors of testing and administration, physiological reactions and infections in the SHOT scheme, but are now expanding our remit to include cases of over/under/inappropriate/delayed transfusions and are also hoping to include donor adverse events in our annual report, where people have fainted (or worse), have had allergic reactions to adhesive tape etc

Hope that helps give a flavour of what it is about

Best wishes

Tony