The U.S. Biovigilance Network is a collaborative project designed to enhance patient safety and protect donor health in transfusion and transplantation medicine while also reducing overall costs to the health care system. Through comprehensive data collection and analysis, the network will seek to reduce adverse reactions and incidents associated with blood transfusion and related biological therapies.

Major anticipated outcomes of the network include:

·      Improving patient outcomes and donor health.

·      Reducing risk for adverse events in hospitals, collection centers and others participating in transfusion and transplantation.

·      Reducing costs of transfusion and transplantation by eliminating errors and inefficiencies where possible.

·      Improving the policies, processes and procedures for transfusing blood and transplanting tissue, organs and cellular products.

·      Identifying threats that adversely affect patients and donors and designing interventions to mitigate them.

·      Continuously improving quality for participating facilities through benchmarking.

·      Developing evidence-based responses to support community efforts addressing public health concerns of the federal government.

Four components will make up the U.S. Biovigilance Network: 1) Recipient Hemovigilance Module, which will focus on patients who receive blood and blood components; 2) Donor Hemovigilance Module, which will track adverse reactions associated with the donation process; 3) Tissue Transplantation Sentinel Network, which will report on adverse events and incidents associated with tissue and organ transplantation; and 4) Cell Therapy Module, which will track outcomes for cellular therapies.

Initiated in 2006, the U.S. Biovigilance Network is a unique public/private collaboration between the federal government and organizations involved in blood collection, transfusion, and tissue and organ transplantation. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is developing and hosting the surveillance system through its National Healthcare Safety Network, or NHSN. Private organizations are involved in program development, operation and management, and fundraising to support the project.

This section includes background on development of the U.S. Biovigilance Network; a list of organizations currently contributing data; FAQs; a list of companies, organizations and individuals that have invested financially in the U.S. Biovigilance Network; and contact information for those interested in learning more about how they can get involved.

Press Release
National Hemovigilance Program Launches to Track Adverse Events Associated with Blood Transfusion - February 18, 2010