The International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) is a scientific society founded in 1935 which promotes the study of blood transfusion and provides information about the ways in which blood transfusion medicine and science can best serve patients' interests. The society's central office is in Amsterdam, and there are around 1900 members in 103 countries. As of June 2024, the president of the ISBT is Pierre Tiberghien. ISBT is governed by a voluntary board of 16 directors, representing all WHO regions. ISBT has 16 scientific working parties, which are groups of ISBT members promoting science, research and best practice in their specific areas of expertise. ISBT advocates for standardisation and harmonisation in the field of blood transfusion. The other major impact on the transfusion community is the classification of various human blood group systems under a common nomenclature. ISBT's coordination also extends to obtaining donors with rare antigens, a process that often involves international searches in which common terminology is critical. The ISBT Code of Ethics was developed in response to the World Health Assembly resolution WHA 28.72. This resolution called for the establishment of: appropriately governed national blood services; voluntary non-remunerated blood donations (VNRBD); and the promotion of the health of both blood donors and recipients of blood. ISBT works as a non-state actor in official relations with WHO. ISBT collaborated with WHO to produce "Educational modules on clinical use of blood".
History In a 2015 review of the history of the ISBT, Hans Erik Heier distinguished four phases in the formation of the society:
Formation and development (1935 – 1985) Years of crisis (1985 – 2000) Reformation (2000 – 2010) A professional organisation (2010 – present) The formation of the International Society of Blood Transfusion, or Société Internationale de Transfusion Sanguine, as it was called at the time, was initiated in Rome at a meeting between representatives from 20 nations, the International Red Cross and the Bogdanov institute in Moscow. Blood transfusion was a rather new therapeutic option, and therefore, it was decided that transfusion-specific congresses should be organised to highlight the potential importance of transfusion. To organize these congresses, a society was needed. After it was decided that a society dedicated to organizing transfusion-related congresses should be created, it did not take long until ISBT was founded. In 1937, the ISBT central office (CO) was established in Paris, led by newly appointed Secretary General Arnault Tzanck. Two years later, in 1939, the activities of the ISBT CO had to be suspended because of the Second World War (WWII). In the period surrounding WWII, immunohaematology and transfusion technology developed rapidly. Blood banks were created, voluntary blood donations came in great numbers in the allied nations, plasma-transfusion became a standard anti-shock treatment, Rh and Kell systems were discovered, and industrial blood plasma fractionation was developed to produce albumin, which can be used as a substitute for plasma. In 1947, the first post-war congress of the ISBT was organised in Turin, Italy. Here, some specific future goals were laid out to complement the main activity of the Society, the organization of congresses:
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