The rapid provision of blood units is of major importance in transfusion medicine. The use of Electronic Issue (sometimes called "electronic crossmatch") has facilitated rapid provision of RBC units through the avoidance of the serologic crossmatch in eligible patients. In this webinar, Malcolm Needs will walk us through the process which has made the Electronic Issue a matter of course in Blood Transfusion.
Malcolm Needs, CSci, FIBMS, FBBTS,
retired from the National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) after over 40 years of leading and teaching positions in Immunohematology Reference Laboratories.
Malcolm Needs, CSci, FIBMS, FBBTS, had several positions in different blood transfusion services where he had the opportunity to pass his fellowship of the Institute of Medical Science (IMLS) in 1987. Then he took a position in the Red Cell Immunohematology (RCI) Department at the National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) where he was the Reference Service Manager until 2014. He was involved in the discovery of new red blood cell antigens and new blood group system. Thereafter, he had a national teaching position where he shared his extensive knowledge until his retirement in 2016. He was twice in the National Council of the British Blood Transfusion Society (BBTS) and he served as the BBTS representative on the Clinical Pathology Accreditation (CPA) organizing symposia. He has obtained the BBTS Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Diploma and he is working towards his 17th Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS) CDP Diploma. He was a member of the IBMS Transfusion Science Special Advisory Panel and the Chief Examiner in Transfusion Science. He was appointed as a member of the British Council for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) (now British Society for Haematology [BSH]) Transfusion Task Force, which oversees and writes Blood Transfusion Guidelines. Until recently, he was serving on the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) Haemovigilance Expert Panel for the IBMS. This year, he became a Fellow of the BBTS and was awarded Life Membership of the IBMS.