title: Towards a global system of vigilance and surveillance in unrelated donors of haematopoietic progenitor cells for transplantation.
abstract: Safety of living donors is critical to the success of blood, tissue and organ transplantation. Structured and robust vigilance and surveillance systems exist as part of some national entities, but historically no global systems are in place to ensure conformity, harmonisation and the recognition of rare adverse events (AEs). The World Health Assembly has recently resolved to require AE/reaction (AE/R) reporting both nationally and globally. The World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) is an international organisation promoting the safety of unrelated donors and progenitor cell products for use in haematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC) transplantation. To address this issue, we established a system for collecting, collating, analysing, distributing and reacting to serious adverse events and reactions (SAE/R) in unrelated HPC donors. The WMDA successfully instituted this reporting system with 203 SAE/R reported in 2011. The committee generated two rapid reports, reacting to specific SAE/R, resulting in practice changing policies. The system has a robust governance structure, formal feedback to the WMDA membership and transparent information flows to other agencies, specialist physicians and transplant programs and the general public.
authors.affiliation: 1] Anthony Nolan Research Institute, Royal Free Hospital, UCL Cancer Centre, London, UK [2] Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: B E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fechter
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Foeken
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Greinix
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Phillips-Johnson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Korhonen
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lindberg
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Szer
mesh_terms: D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D012042:Registries; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D019172:Transplantation Conditioning / Q000379:methods; D061349:Unrelated Donors