Annually more than 20,000 volunteer unrelated hematopoietic stem cell donations are undertaken. Living donors donate
their cells for patients in need of a transplant. Since 2002 donor safety has become a highly visible issue. In that time WMDA
has started up a reporting system for unrelated hematopoietic stem cell donations. It is important to reassure potential
donors that there are systems in place to protect them from adverse outcomes and that there is a continuous learning
system which is informed by global reporting. The next step to improve the system of reporting is to collaborate with
regulatory authorities in order to be able to disseminate information that has been validated by experts in the field and
regulators. Another next step might be to set up a similar system for donors who donate hematopoietic stem cells for their
family members.

In addition the ICT infrastructure in facilitating an unrelated search for a transplant needs to be upgraded in order to speed up the process to find a suitable stem cell source for a patient in need of a transplant. WMDA strives to accelerate the search and match process by improving the underlying ICT infrastructure, to ensure full traceability of stem cells from donor to transplant by implementing a global donor ID-number and to collect more information so that better matching results can be accomplished.

Unfortunately, not for each patient a match can be found, WMDA will strive to identify the gap and develop focused recruitment strategies for populations where patient need is growing.

To reduce the administrative burden on organisations facilitating transplants WMDA will work on tools to share knowledge on the import from hematopoietic stem cells from third countries.
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