AABB24: TSOs Continue Their Key Role

For more than 10 years, transfusion safety officers (TSOs) have been an important element of blood transfusion safety. As the professionals who provide knowledgeable guidance between clinicians and laboratory personnel, TSOs have expanded their roles in tandem with advances in the practice of transfusion medicine.

The 2024 AABB Annual Meeting session titled “A Global Perspective of Roles, Responsibilities and Impact of Transfusion Safety Officers” helped attendees understand the most recent developments and how TSOs have adapted their presence to a variety of different practice settings worldwide.

TSOs, sometimes also called patient blood management (PBM) coordinators or other titles, have always been dedicated to the safety of patients receiving blood transfusion. Their role has continued to be focused on bridging the gaps in the blood transfusion setting. During the past 10 to 15 years, TSOs have been instrumental in making PBM central to the broader practice of transfusion medicine.

An Important Presence

Asawari Bapat, PGDHHM, CABP(H), DABRM, FABRM, a regenerative medicine consultant from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, shared the status and infrastructure of TSO activity in the UAE. She emphasized the importance of asking “Do you understand?” when communicating with colleagues who may use a different terminology and have different work experiences.

Bapat observed that TSO expertise has expanded to include many responsibilities, including the following:

• Monitor compliance with regulations and standards.
• Train and educate others.
• Investigate patient adverse events.
• Implement quality improvement measures.
• Support multidisciplinary collaboration to ensure patient safety.
• Identification of activities and practices that need improvement.
• Development and implementation of strategies to optimize safety for a broader patient population.

Different Places, but Same Faces

Richard Schäfer, MD, FRSB, from the University of Freiburg Medical Center in Freiburg, Germany, provided attendees with a glimpse of TSO activities in Germany. He described the various TSO-type positions and the hierarchy of the personnel system. He identified typical tasks for the TSOs, commissioners and physicians. Not part of the hierarchy but key to safety oversight is a Hematotherapy Quality Commissioner.

If Not a TSO, Who?

Nour Al-Mozain, MD, CABP, QIA, from King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia demonstrated one of the over-arching themes of the session—TSO roles are different throughout the world and even within the same region. She explored the setting where no TSO exists and described how the responsibilities are distributed among other professionals in such a scenario. She noted that this infrastructure may lead to some knowledge gaps.

A Fruitful Discussion

The question-and-answer portion of the session was highly interactive. In addition to posing questions for the presenters, audience members compared their own experiences. Valuable input from TSO attendees made some of the exchanges noteworthy.