Sponsored by the AABB RISE (Respect, Inclusion, Support, Engagement) Committee.

This session from 2 large national blood providers aims to addresses the challenges of maintaining and expanding a diverse donor base to meet both current and future patient needs. The first presentation from Vitalant will focus on the evolving demographic landscape of blood donation in the United States (US), with a particular emphasis on the aging donor base and the difficulties surrounding younger donor engagement. The second presentation from the Canadian Blood Services will emphasize the critical importance of ethnic and racial diversity in the blood donor population to meet the needs of patients requiring rare blood types and to maintain a robust, inclusive blood supply. In both the US and Canada, only approximately 3% of the eligible donor population donate annually. Upper income countries are experiencing aging of both their general and donor population. Additionally, a higher percentage of the population, especially in younger groups, are from diverse racial and cultural groups. This leads to complex patient needs for rare blood groups and phenotype combinations that require recruitment of diverse donors. Diverse groups need to identify themselves as potential blood donors and innovative, adapted recruitment and retention strategies are therefore needed to attract and keep diverse donors. We discuss donor demographic trends and donation behavior in older and younger donors. We explore issues related to donor health at both ends of the age spectrum. Younger donors have higher adverse reactions and a high rate of iron deficiency. Emerging data suggests that there are increased risks of adverse reactions in older donors. Mitigation strategies to reduce adverse events may be tailored to different donor groups. We can perform more sophisticated genotyping of donors and patients to prevent alloimmunization and provide matched blood for alloimmunized patients. Since both rare blood groups and phenotype combinations vary in different racial groups, a diverse donor population is needed to support immediate patient needs and aspirations for prevention of alloimmunization. Many aspects of blood services' functioning, from recruitment and retention strategies to donor eligibility and testing policies may need to be assessed in terms of their impact on diverse communities.

Ralph Vassallo MD, FACP

EVP/Chief Medical & Scientific Officer, Vitalant

Appearances