Aims

• Expanding our donor base, whilst ensuring donor welfare and patient safety
• Maximising our ability to 'best' match donated blood with transfusion recipients

Key Findings

• African respondents were significantly more likely to report lack of information and malaria-related barriers than Caucasian and more likely to donate to help someone within their own community. An awareness of sickle-cell disease was higher among African respondents.
  • Motivators and barriers to blood donation among potential donors of African and Caucasian ethnicity. Helen Fogarty, Muskan Sardana, Luke Sheridan, Phoebe Chieng, Sarah Kelly, Noel Ngwenya, Ciara Sheehan, Kieran Morris, Emma Tuohy. Blood Transfus. 2022 Jun 12.

• Gender identification is critical for donation and transfusion safety and the development of our transgender donation policy means that and there is increased awareness of the barriers and stigma that transgender donors may experience.
• For more information please see our Transgender and Non-Binary Donor's Information Leaflet
  • Transgender Donors and Blood Donation in the Irish Blood Transfusion Service. Jennifer Harkin, Shonagh Ward, Louise Pomeroy, Ellen McSweeney. Presentation at 4th European Conference on Donor Health and Management 2021. 

On-going Research 

• Risk analysis for the introduction of Individualised Donor Risk Assessment prior to donation