ABDS update
We’re working hard recruiting donors to be a part of the ABDS. Our researchers will use your data and samples to answer questions about the donation experience, including donor and recipient health.
What’s happened so far?
As some of you may have seen in our last newsletter, we started off in 2020 with a pilot study of more than 2,000 whole blood donors to see if they’d be interested in this kind of study. Read about it here.
In late 2022, we started in two donor centres to make sure the study could run smoothly. With that success, we opened the invitation to our apheresis (plasma and platelet) donors and included an SMS reminder, and wow, you jumped at the chance to help!
In May last year, we officially began recruiting and collecting samples in five donor centres across Australia, adding another six by August. We brought on our first pop-up and mobile donor centres in November which has been a great success, with our regional communities jumping on board in large numbers.
Today, we’ve completed our sample collection in our final wave of recruitment at seven New South Wales donor centres. We have almost 9,000 donors enrolled in the study and we’ve collected 6,408 samples for the biobank. This has been an amazing achievement and we are not stopping there!
We’re using what we’ve learnt so far — what you’ve told us — to see how best we can make this study into something every donor can join. Your opinions make all the difference.
Next steps
You’ll be getting your 12-month follow-up survey very soon (if you haven’t got it already).
Thanks to all of you for being involved in the study. Every survey completed or sample collected helps us reach our research target.
Doctor Wayne B. Dyer
Wayne’s research focuses on optimal use of fractionated plasma products, clinical application of Patient Blood Management to improve patient outcomes, and management of research biorepositories. He’s currently investigating use of plasma clotting factor concentrates to improve resuscitation strategies for massive bleeding and haemorrhagic shock in surgical and trauma patients, and manages Lifeblood’s ABDS Biobank.Wayne received his PhD from the University of NSW in 1999, and has been a valued research scientist at Lifeblood ever since.
Carley Gemelli
Carley coordinates program management for R&D and works as a project manager across a number of projects. Her research focuses on improving the donors’ experience when their donation is postponed. She’s interested in using statistical techniques to analyse data and developing techniques to encourage donors to return.Carley has a research background in Medical Science and Epidemiology looking at infectious diseases and longitudinal health risks. She has a Masters in Applied Statistics and Clinical Epidemiology. She loves working in an applied setting and seeing research findings translated into practice.
Doctor Surendra Karki
Surendra uses large-scale data to conduct epidemiological research and understand blood donors’ health and wellbeing. He's always sharing his knowledge of clinical and epidemiological study design to help everyone get the best outcomes. Before joining the team at Lifeblood, Surendra obtained his PhD in Epidemiology from Monash University. He went on to work as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
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