Webinar: Optimizing Your Blood Center’s Pathogen Reduced Platelet Inventory

webinar 200x200 square Webinar: Optimizing Your Blood Center’s Pathogen Reduced Platelet Inventory

The deadline for implementation of the FDA bacterial guidance, March 31, 2021, is quickly approaching. The guidance outlines strategies to reduce the risk of bacterial transfusion transmission (TTI) in platelet components, including pathogen reduction (PR) and various testing approaches. This webinar highlights two case studies that demonstrate how blood centers can achieve a >70% pathogen reduced platelet component inventory to meet hospital demand, while complying with FDA Guidance requirements.

Case studies presented will:

- Show the development of a PR scale-up plan correlated to hospital demand and roll-out
- Describe measures implemented to achieve an inventory of ~100% pathogen reduced platelets
- Illustrate how PR increased platelet availability through decreased expiry rates with the elimination of culture holds

Presented by:
Beau Robertson - Cerus Corporation
Nichole Miller - Versiti Blood Center of Michigan
Tracy Collier - Community Blood Bank of NWPA and WNY

Watch the replay

Click here or the image below. Runtime: ~45 minutes.

Our Speakers:

Beau Robertson | Director, Blood Center Services Deployment, Cerus Corporation

Beau is the Director of Blood Center Services at Cerus where he leads the teams responsible for blood center implementation of the INTERCEPT Blood System. Beau and his deployment and technical service teams provide best in class customer support, including project planning, lab design, capacity analytics, process flow and lean-manufacturing. Over the past 16 years, as an ASCP certified Medical Technologist, Beau has filled various positions in the blood banking and transfusion services fields. Before joining Cerus, Beau was an active duty commissioned officer in the Medical Service Corps of the U.S. Navy, assigned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Beau holds a BS in Medical Technology from Louisiana State University and an MPH in Epidemiology from The University of Oklahoma.

Nichole Miller MSTM (SBB) ASCP | Director, Specialized Production, Versiti Blood Center of Michigan

Nichole has worked for Versiti Wisconsin for 12 years were she held several roles in the blood field, including: research, donor management and blood operations. She currently manages the blood quality control testing and platelet production laboratories and has focused on implementing pathogen reduced platelets in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. Nichole completed her Specialist in Blood Banking certification in 2014 and attained her Masters in Transfusion Medicine in 2018 at Marquette University. When not working, Nichole volunteers for the Wisconsin Association of Blood Banks as the president for the 2019–2020 term.

Tracy Collier | Technical Director, Community Blood Bank of NWPA and WNY

Tracy began her career in medical technology 23 years ago and, prior to entering the blood center environment, had worked in several settings including large clinical reference, physician network and hospital-based laboratories. In 2013, Tracy began working at Community Blood Bank as a Medical Technologist performing laboratory testing. In 2015, she was promoted to the Technical Director position and currently oversees all component production and preparation while working with Recruitment and Hospital Services to maintain a safe and adequate blood supply. She has a B.S. in Medical Technology and is ASCP Certified.