Leadership
Christine Bales, BS, MLS, I (ASCP) CQA (ASQ) (she/her/hers)
Vice President, Global Impact
AABB
Maryland Heights, Missouri, United States
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Celina Montemayor-Garcia, MD, PhD (she/her/hers)
Medical and Scientific Lead, Red Cell Genomics
Canadian Blood Services
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Maria Isabel Castro Pérez, MC. (she/her/hers)
President
AMMTAC (Mexican Society of Transfusion Medicine, AC
Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Emmanuel Fernandez, MD (he/him/his)
Head of Department of Blood Bank
National Institute of Pediatrics
Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Session Desription: AABB’s mission is to improve lives by making transfusion medicine and biotherapies safe, available, and effective worldwide. This session focuses on recent efforts to fulfill this mission in LIMICs (Low Income Middle Income Countries), using AABB’s partnership with a Latin American Transfusion Medicine Association (AMMTAC) as a model. The history and objectives of this partnership are discussed by both participating parties, and an overview of the strategy of this collaboration, its history, and its accomplishments to date are presented. As part of the session, translation efforts for the AABB Fundamental Standards for Blood Collection and Transfusion are described. Post translation of the standards AABB Global Impact hosted virtual educational events at national levels in Mexico and Peru for training on the implementation of the AABB Spanish Quality Certificate program. The session will have transfusion medicine professionals from both AABB and AMMTAC membership discussing the tangible results achieved to date in patient care, and the benefits of this partnership for participating professionals in both parties. The session will conclude with an open dialogue about improvement opportunities, feedback from other developing regions, and strategies to extend this model and increase its impact worldwide.