San Diego Blood Bank’s Precision Blood
The Future of Personalized Medicine
San Diego Blood Bank’s vision is to have an even greater impact on our community’s health through precision medicine, an innovative, personalized approach bringing greater precision to transfusion medicine through a targeted DNA sequencing analysis of blood type in both blood donors and blood recipients. The precise matching of blood types allows physicians to proactively prevent potential negative responses to transfusion from the patient’s immune system. Precision Blood™ is the answer to better blood transfusion treatments and San Diego Blood Bank is working to make it a reality.
Transfusion patients in greatest need include cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation, organ and bone marrow transplant patients, and patients with blood disorders (like Sickle Cell Disease or thalassemia) or other conditions requiring frequent transfusions throughout their life.
San Diego locals, Ella and Kamila, rely on blood donations. Both girls have beta thalassemia major, which affects their ability to produce enough red blood cells on their own. Regular blood transfusions provide lifesaving care to these brave girls who will require blood for the rest of their lives.
“Kaiser-Permanente is very pleased with San Diego Blood Bank’s Precision Blood Program and sees much benefit to our patients in the expansion of Precision Blood practices. These benefits help prevent alloimmunization in our most vulnerable patients – providing them the most compatible blood. Since the start of Precision Blood and genotyping, our patients have been tested and received genotype compatible blood. The main use of genotyping is in our Heme-Onc (patients), pediatric patients with thalassemia and Sickle Cell Disease, and those with multiple alloantibodies.
Due to this technology at San Diego Blood Bank, rapid turnaround time, and relatively low cost associated, we have implemented a policy to genotype all Sickle Cell Disease and thalassemia children and provide them with genotype compatible blood as we believe there is tremendous return in the reduction in morbidity and mortality over the patient’s life span,” shared Majid Ghassemi, MD, Chief of Service, Pathology, Medical Director of Laboratories, Kaiser-Permanente.
“Through next-generation sequencing, identifying rare donors, and supporting our hospital-based transfusion services, we expect to attract national, and even international interest, in our state-of-the-art Immunohematology Reference Laboratory services – transforming the field of transfusion medicine while further establishing San Diego Blood Bank as a center of excellence,” added Mark Edmunds, MD, Chief Medical Officer, San Diego Blood Bank.
We invite you to join San Diego Blood Bank in their mission to usher in a new era of medicine through Precision Blood. With your support, we can build a future where transfusion medicine is more personalized and effective, achieving better outcomes for patients and helping them live happier, longer lives.
For more information on ways to give or partner with San Diego Blood Bank, please contact Cherryl Castro-Lector, Director of Development at (619) 400-8214 or visit www.sandiegobloodbank.org.
