title: The World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA): its goals and activities.
abstract: The major goal of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) is to facilitate the transfer of hematopoietic cells for transplantation purposes across international borders. It also has the goal of establishing guidelines on ethical, technical, medical, and financial aspects that concern the donor and donor-cell transfer. It has a Board and five Working Groups, namely the Donor Registry Working Group, the Quality Assurance Group, the Ethic Working Group, the Finance Working Group, and the Clinical Working Group. It has three types of membership, that is, full organizational membership, nonvoting organizational membership, and individual corresponding membership. Current important projects are speeding up the search process, accreditation of registries and collecting information about severe adverse effects in donors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge University Hospital, SE-14186 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gahrton
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: van Rood
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oudshoorn
mesh_terms: D018070:Biological Specimen Banks / Q000458:organization & administration; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D012042:Registries; D014019:Tissue Donors