Purpose
The aim of this toolkit is to assist blood centers and researchers interested in expanding their services in public health programs.
The goal is to provide a framework enabling researchers and/or blood centers to:
- Increase recognition of the role blood donors can play in public health
- Efficiently gain commitment and funding from various agencies for new research and surveillance
Toolkit Content
Section 1: What Blood Centers can offer to Public Health
The contents of this section include:
- Information for creating a fact-based document that can be shared with public health agencies
- Information from a recent public health research survey
- Description on how to use donors as a useful population for research studies
- Literature references with examples of the use of donors for public health research
- List of global agencies with contact information
- List of blood center labs with research capabilities and what is available
Section 2: How to enhance the ability to support emerging outbreaks once discovered
The contents of this section include:
- Considerations for development of a biobank
- A customizable template for a biobank management framework
