Transfusion Technology Assessment
The Transfusion Technology Assessment (TTA) group was established in 2004 as an ongoing collaboration of Sanquin with Medical Technology Assessment Department of the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care at Utrecht University with the mission to perform risk assessments and cost-utility analyses on blood safety, to establish models for clinical blood use and blood recipient profiles and to collate and analyze European data on blood use and supply. Apart from scientific publications, the TTA group provides proprietary information to Sanquin Executive Board and Sanquin Plasma Products.
Optimal Blood Safety
Blood products are very safe but remain material from human origin; donors who are exposed to changing environments. Emerging infectious diseases (EID) may require new interventions. Also newly identified risks for recipients, such as the shelf life of blood products may require new approaches. The risk of negative health outcomes for recipients of blood needs to be assessed on a regular basis. Dutch government policy is to aim at ‘optimal blood safety’. Cost-utility analyses can provide rational decisions for new safety interventions. Information can be provided by mathematical modeling of data on the spread and properties of EID´s, donor epidemiology and donation behavior, infectious load of donated blood, test characteristics, processing and pathogen inactivation steps and distribution characteristics of end products to different categories of recipients in hospitals.
Optimal Blood Use
Modeling recipient outcomes requires national data on clinical blood use and blood recipient profiles, including recipient survival after transfusion. In collaboration with hospitals and the National Statistics Bureau (CBS) datasets are maintained on the use of blood products to different categories of recipients and on recipient morbidity and mortality. In addition, insight is provided in the usage of blood, which hospitals can use for benchmarking. European data elaborated by TTA provides additional comparisons.
Optimal Blood supply
Aging of donors may diminish supply and aging of recipients may increase demand. Donor population characteristics and collection processes are modeled based in Sanquin datasets. Hospital data is used to model blood use and outdating in order to signal trends in blood use over different recipient groups. Ongoing monitoring of such trends and statistical predictions allow blood supply management to be timely informed.
Optimal Methodology
Application of existing modeling methods for transfusion chain data reveals that methodology could be further improved. Such studies are primarily initiated for problem solving within the primary TTA objectives, and if appropriate submitted for publication in statistical journals.
Student projects
At this moment there are no internships available at the department of Transfusion Technology Assessment.