Publications & Media

(AABB SmartBrief) AABB and the Association of Donor Recruitment Professionals have recognized New Zealand Blood Services for its outstanding efforts in support of World Blood Donor Day. NZBS, the first winner of the AABB/ADRP Blood Donor Day Award, focused its 2008 campaign on involving the community and gaining much-needed media coverage. Information obtained through online research was used to create compelling messaging, which was used in connection with media opportunities with actors from a popular local prime-time TV series, live on-air blood donations during a youth-focused radio show, and the coordination of a high school blood drive. For its efforts, NZBS has received a complimentary registration to the next annual meetings of both AABB and ADRP and a $1,500 stipend.

(THE News, Pakistan) - By Amer Malik - THE Chief Minister's Complaint Cell, on a citizen's complaint, has directed the Health Department and the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to take immediate action against the mafia involved in the misuse of blood donations at blood banks in public sector hospitals.

A citizen had submitted a complaint against the alleged illegal sale of blood donations at the blood banks of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and the Jinnah Hospital with the alleged backing of the Punjab Blood Transfusion Authority officials.

In the complaint, he said that the blood banks employees were involved in selling donated blood to the patients and their relatives at high prices, adding that blood bags of different groups were sold at different prices, i.e. A-positive, B-positive and AB-positive at Rs 400, O-positive at Rs 1,000, and A-negative, B-negative and O-negative at Rs 1,500 per bag.

It was alleged that an employee, with the support of the in-charge of the blood bank of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, had been involved in the illegal business at a large scale for the last five years.

When this fact was revealed to the chief chemical examiner, holding additional charge of the director Blood Transfusion Authority, he said many complaints had already been received against the said employee and he was transferred many times but he, with the support of MNAs and MPAs, succeeded in getting his transfer orders cancelled.

The said employee, working at the blood bank of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, has always got himself deputed in daytime shift, despite a schedule of three shifts, with the support of his in-charge to run the illegal business.

Asif Naeem said that the same situation was prevalent at the Jinnah Hospital where blood bank employees were receiving Rs 50 per blood group test without issuing any receipt to the donors. He said if anyone complained against the corruption, the blood bank employees replied that they were paying for utility bills, cell phone cards and entertainment of their superiors out of the

money collected.

It was alleged that a lady doctor at the Jinnah Hospital had been sheltering the blood bank staff involved in corruption like sale and purchase of blood and exploitation of guardians of the patients.

The complainant further alleged that all these mafias were operating with the connivance of an assistant director of the Blood Transfusion Authority, who had been occupying the post for the last 12 years.

"If somebody warns these corrupt that a complaint will be lodged against them, they claim that they give a lion's share of their income to all their superiors/bosses," he said. Asif requested Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to personally intervene in view of the situation at blood banks of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and the Jinnah Hospital, where the mafia was busy in misusing the public blood and exploiting the patients and their families.

Responding to the complaint, Irfan Yousaf, the director Public Affairs of the Chief Minister's Complaint Cell, directed the Health Secretary and the director general of the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to pay attention to this issue and take immediate legal/departmental action against the accused in the public interest. He also directed the said officials to submit report in this regard within a week.

(msnbc.com) - by Tim Leffel - Globe-trotter? Expat? Do your research before stepping in the bloodmobile

More than a few times I've saved friends or family members from a fruitless drive to the Red Cross blood bank. A few people I've gotten e-mails from haven't been so lucky; they burned some expensive gas getting there only to be rejected. They were sent away because they had the dreaded disease known as the "travel bug."

Were they slashing through the Amazon jungle with a machete, or taking a riverboat down the Congo? No, one had been scuba diving in Belize, one had been on a small cruise ship that docked in the San Blas islands of Panama and another had taken a weekend trip to Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas.

To protect the blood supply, even if it means vast shortages, the American Red Cross applies very strict rules. In short, you must wait 12 months after travel in an area where malaria is found, no matter how negligible the risk. You must wait three years after moving to the United States after living in a country where malaria is found (even if you didn't see any mosquitoes surviving the smog outside your crummy apartment). If there was a whiff of mad cow disease when you visited some place, you are not eligible to donate. If you lived in certain countries in Western Africa, or had a sweetie from there, hang it up completely.

In other words, if you're an international traveler or expatriate who regularly ventures outside of the U.S., there's probably a better chance you'll be rejected than accepted.

The ‘do not give' list
If you are an even slightly adventurous traveler, you will probably run into trouble when you start filling out paperwork to donate. Do you like to see the great wonders of the world? If you've been to see the amazing structures of Ankor Wat (Cambodia), the Taj Mahal (India) or the Buddhist splendors of Bhutan, forget it.

Have you seen the World Heritage city of Luang Prabang, Laos? Visited the colorful markets of Bolivia? Gone birdwatching in Costa Rica or Honduras? Stay in the cubicle on your company's blood drive day.

Have you taken a nice little scuba diving trip to Belize or the Bay Islands of Honduras? Walk right past that bloodmobile. If you've gone on a safari in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya or Botswana, take a year off.

Touring around China after the Olympics? You'll need an atlas to determine whether you can give blood as this is the CDC explanation: "In provinces with risk, transmission exists in rural communities below 1,500m only during warm weather: north of latitude 33°N, July-November; between latitude 25°N and 33°N, May-December. South of latitude 25°N, transmission occurs year-round."

If you've been in the military, you might as well request a Red Cross "do not call" listing. Unless you've been able to avoid a tour of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Korean DMZ, you will be deferred for at least a year.

If you are planning to buy a vacation or retirement home in Central America, you may want to bank some blood ahead of time. Such popular retirement areas as Guanacaste (Costa Rica), Bocas del Toro (Panama) and Boquete (Panama) are considered danger zones for malaria.

Your haunted blood
If you lived abroad, even ages ago, you may be sent home packing. Thanks to the possible risk of mad cow disease, anyone who has lived in Europe for a total of over five years since 1980 is out. If you lived in the UK for three months or more between 1980 and 1996, including London, your blood is automatically rejected. (A whole generation of exchange students crossed off the list.)

Are you in the oil and gas industry? Stay home in the easy chair if you've traveled around Azerbaijan, Angola, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan. If you crossed into the eastern part of Turkey, 21 provinces are listed as malaria risks.

Because of HIV risk, an FDA mandate puts on even more onerous restrictions. "Persons who were born in or lived in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger and Nigeria since 1977 cannot be blood donors." If you've ever slept with someone from one of those countries, you're guilty by association. Yes that's right: if you had the bad fortune to be assigned to one of these countries at some point in the past three decades, or ever had a girlfriend/boyfriend from that vast region, you are banned for life!

Risk area updates
The CDC updates their "yellow book" twice a year, so the most idiotic examples tend to drop off in time. (I once was rejected because I had visited Playa del Carmen in Mexico, but Cozumel - a 10-minute ferry ride away - was considered a safe zone.) The three main tourist areas of Guatemala are now listed as exceptions. The suburbs of Seoul, Korea are now off the list - my living there once made me deferred for three years.

Of course we have to keep the blood supply pure. Nobody wants to recover from one accident only to be sickened with something else from a transfusion. But various estimates for the chance of picking up an infection or disease from a blood transfusion range from 1 in 30,000 to 1 in 80,000. The risk of death is far slimmer, in line with the risk of dying from anesthesia or an antibiotic. The risk of getting AIDS from a blood transfusion is about the same as the risk of getting struck by lightning.

Unless we run out of blood, the guidelines are likely to stay restrictive. If you have traveled abroad and have managed to avoid the problem areas, contact your local Red Cross chapter and do your part to help. But if you're not so sure you'll qualify, study the information on their Blood Donations Eligibility Guidelines Web site.

(KOLD News 13, Tucson, AZ) - by Teresa Jun - Fort Huachuca is taking advantage of a military rule change that will help save lives.  Until recently, only active-duty service members and military-related civilians could donate blood during military drives.  But now, more civilians can roll up their sleeves.

When the U.S. military makes a plea for blood donations, you expect to see uniformed members answering the call.  But now, more and more civilian segments of the population are trickling in.

"It's definitely good," said Andee Davidson, who showed up for a military blood drive on Fort Huachuca Wednesday afternoon.  Davidson has no direct ties to the military, but has turned out to make a donation.   "I feel like I can give back to my country a little bit, and do my part."

"The thought that you can help the Army in that way, it's a really cool idea," agreed Mallory Stewart, a fellow civilian friend who is also donating blood.

It's an idea that would not have been possible for Mallory and Andee just a year ago.  It used to be that only active-duty service members, retired military, immediate family members of military, and civilian government employees were eligible to donate blood at these drives.  But as of late last year, the military expanded its donor pool, inviting all civilians to come on post and donate.

"It helps us," said Staff Sgt. Michael Baker, with the Armed Services Blood Program.  "It makes no difference where it comes from, we appreciate it, and it's wonderful."

The rule change comes after several citizens had pushed for a way to roll up their sleeves to support the troops.  It also comes in response to the critical need for blood in combat zones.

"It is very critical," said Patricia Peterson, a Fort Huachuca blood drive volunteer.  "Every single unit that we collect goes directly to our soldiers down range or in the Army Hospital."

For Mallory Stewart, some of her friends will be deploying in a few months, and the need for blood is starting to hit close to home.  "They're giving their lives for us, so why not try to help them out," she said.

The military blood drive at Fort Huachuca continues Thursday, July 31.  It will take place from 2:00pm to 8:00pm, inside Eifler Gym on the military post.  The public is welcome.  Blood donors are urged to drive up to the front gate, and they must show a driver's license, vehicle registration, and insurance card to proceed to the Blood Drive.

For more information on the Armed Services Blood Program: www.militaryblood.dod.mil

To increase national and global appreciation of volunteer blood donors, AABB and the Association of Donor Recruitment Professionals (ADRP) are partnering together to encourage their respective members to celebrate World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) on June 14. This specific day marks the birthday of Karl Landsteiner, the Nobel Prize winner who discovered the ABO blood group system. “World Blood Donor Day raises awareness of the need for safe blood around the world,” said AABB Chief Executive Officer Karen Shoos Lipton. “We hope to encourage eligible individuals to donate blood regularly so that blood is readily available in our communities when it is needed.”

To help promote this event, AABB and ADRP have developed a WBDD resource kit that includes downloadable materials available on their respective Web sites, including a fact sheet, poster and proclamation template. In addition, the two organizations are proud to announce the establishment of the AABB/ADRP World Blood Donor Day Award, which will recognize one organization for its outstanding efforts to promote this celebratory event. The facility selected for this award will receive one complimentary registration to the 2008 AABB Annual Meeting & TXPO in Montréal and one complimentary registration to the 2009 ADRP Conference in St. Pete Beach, Fla. The winning organization also will receive a $1,500 stipend to apply toward travel to these meetings for an employee or employees who played an instrumental role in implementing that organization’s World Blood Donor Day activities. More details about the AABB/ADRP World Blood Donor Day Award submission process is posted on the AABB Web site at http://www.aabb.org and on the ARDP Web site at http://www.adrp.org. Submissions are due by July 11. –

The 2008 WBDD theme, “Giving Blood Regularly,” is one AABB and ADRP members can, and should, easily embrace, says Sue Churchill, former ADRP president and current member of the AABB Donor Recruitment/Public Relations Committee. “What center hasn’t at some point struggled with how to build and retain a base of returning donors willing to make a life-long commitment?” asked Churchill.

Churchill challenges AABB and ADRP members to be creative in their WBDD celebration. She suggests the use of clever slogans that encourage repeat donors, while adhering to WBDD’s intent to thank donors for their gift of blood. World Blood Donor Day provides an opportunity for centers to evaluate the effectiveness of their donor care programs and involve blood donors themselves in identifying ways to increase donor satisfaction and promote donor loyalty. AABB and ADRP, whose members include individuals and institutions located throughout the world, also support World Blood Donor Day as a way to draw attention to the fact that the overwhelming majority of the world’s population does not have access to safe blood. According to the World Health Organization, more than 80 million units of blood are donated every year, but only 38 percent are collected in developing countries where 82 percent of the global population lives. Some 60 percent of the world’s blood supply goes to 18 percent of the population. There is a serious disparity among countries when it comes to both the availability and safety of blood. As additional donor restrictions are implemented and the population ages, the

U.S. and other countries could lose more and more willing donors, which could cause an even greater threat to our global blood supply.

Recent research shows that only 38 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to give blood. Of those eligible, only a small fraction actually donate each year. Maintaining a strong, continuous voluntary blood donor pool is critical to ensuring that there is a robust blood supply to meet patients’ needs 365 days a year, whether their needs are for scheduled treatments or for emergencies. AABB and ADRP encourage donors and potential donors to make giving blood a regular part of their lives. One unit of blood can save up to three lives. To donate blood, one must be healthy, and meet age, weight and other donor requirements. Those interested in donating blood may visit http://www.aabb.org>Donate Blood to find a local blood collection site and to schedule an appointment.

(Hartford Connecticut - Courant) - by Janice Podsada - Ron Salonia, a medical technician at the University of Connecticut Health Center, operates the heart-lung machine during open-heart surgery. But he doesn't like giving blood. His reluctance has nothing to do with a fear of needles or feeling faint. Like a growing number of medical professionals, Salonia prefers not to give heart patients a blood transfusion unless necessary.

While transfusion techniques have grown increasingly sophisticated, recent studies suggest that "receiving someone else's blood is not as beneficial as one may think," said Salonia, who is a perfusionist, a technician who runs the machines that take over the functions of a patient's key organs during surgery.

Most patients experience some form of immune reaction when they receive donor blood. That reaction can be as mild as a slight increase in temperature or as severe and life-threatening as multi-organ failure, said Keith Samolyk, 48, founder of Global Blood Resources LLC, a 4-year-old Windsor company. Someone undergoing open heart surgery doesn't need additional complications. And heart patients may not be healthy enough to "bank their own blood," which can be stored for only about 40 days, Samolyk said. "Blood is alive. It's living tissue. When it's not in your body, it's not getting the nutrients it needs. As donor blood approaches the expiration date, the red cells become less flexible. Their potential for clogging the capillaries increases," he said.

"Blood transfusions are for lifesaving emergencies — when there's been significant blood loss, when you've been in an accident or been shot."

Samolyk, a practicing perfusionist, is the inventor of the Hemobag, a patented medical device that returns the patient's whole blood in a concentrated form to him or her after cardiac surgery.

Samolyk, who refined the device at his parents' kitchen sink in Windsor, used his retirement money, "well over $100,000," to finance his venture.

In 2004, after receiving U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for the Hemobag, Samolyk began marketing it. Global Blood Resources now supplies 62 medical institutions across the nation, said Samolyk, who declined to provide any financial details about the company.

"Nobody has anything like this on the market," he said.

That distinction drew the attention of the Connecticut Technology Council, which named Global Blood Resources one of this year's 14 most promising early-stage companies.

When a patient undergoes open-heart surgery, the heart must be stopped and the patient hooked up to a heart-lung machine, which essentially becomes "your life support," Samolyk said.

Last year, more than 325,000 patients nationwide had open-heart surgery using a heart-lung machine.

"From door to door, the typical procedure lasts about four hours," Samolyk said. "During that time I'm controlling all your bodily functions: maintaining body temperature, urine output, blood pressure and oxygenation. I do everything your body would do."

When the operation concludes, there are usually 1 to 2 liters of blood left in the heart-lung machine, a significant amount because the average adult has about 5 liters of blood in his or her body, he said. Returning the blood to the patient can help promote healing and avoid the need for a blood transfusion.

But it's not as simple as it sounds. Before the blood can be returned, it has to be carefully flushed from the machine so that no air bubbles are introduced into it. Perfusionists have traditionally used devices called cell-savers to salvage the blood. However, they save and return red blood cells only.

"I saw this as a huge problem," Samolyk said. "All this precious stuff was going down the drain."

Blood is made up of several major components: red cells that deliver oxygen, infection-fighting white cells, platelets that help staunch bleeding, and plasma that contains clotting factors and albumin, which helps regulate blood pressure.

Returning whole blood — not just red blood cells — to patients who've just emerged from open-heart surgery can really perk them up, Samolyk said.

"It's like spinach for Popeye," he said. "People stop bleeding. It stabilizes the patient's blood pressure." In the course of an operation, however, a patient's blood becomes diluted with intravenous fluids and medications. So before whole blood can be returned to the patient, those foreign elements and the extra fluid must be filtered out. Developing a system that would remove them and still capture all of the blood components became Samolyk's passion.

About 10 years ago, "I woke up in the middle of the night," he said. "It just went 'ding!' in my head and I got up and wrote it all down."

He adapted a filtration technology similar to that used in dialysis to create the technology behind the Hemobag. He tested prototypes at the kitchen sink.

"I'd hook it up to the faucet, and circulate water through it to observe the rate of flow." To adjust the flow, he changed the size and shape of the bag until the entire filtration process took less than 10 minutes.

Once the bag's design was perfected, he raised $250,000 from family and friends and began production. Then came the task of convincing medical professionals to try the device.

The UConn

Health Center in Farmington began using the Hemobag more than a year ago. One of the first institutions to use the device was Salem Hospital in Salem, Ore.

"We've used over 800 Hemobags," said Scott Beckmann, one of the hospital's perfusionists. "We're using less blood bank products. That's been a cost savings for the hospital."

Before Salem Hospital began using the device, "We used cell washers that would wash away significant and beneficial blood elements and would only give back red blood cells — red blood cells are important, but that's not all there is to it," Beckmann said. "Ethically, we would look at this waste bag full of viable elements — proteins, platelets that help plug that hole in the artery — and it was being thrown out. "When the Hemobag was finally made available, we sat down with the surgeons and said, 'This looks like a helpful device.' We said 'Let's try it for two weeks,' and before the two weeks were up, we decided to use it during every surgery."

In 1993, consensual gay sex was legalized and in 1999,

"Now we are going to ask for positive actions of the authorities in order to directly ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Russia law as well as criminal prosecution for hate speeches and aggressive homophobia," Alekseev said. (The Advocate)

During the 2008 ADRP Annual Conference in Halifax, members selected the new association board naming Carolyn Mihalko of American Red Cross as the 2008-09 ADRP President. The ADRP membership also voted to update and streamline the By-Laws, adding two vice president slots to the ADRP Executive Committee to assist with fundraising and implemented a certification program for the association. A full story on the changes will appear in the next Drop.

Carolyn serves as the Director of Education for the American Red Cross Biomedical Services, N.E. Division. She was formerly the Director of Recruitment and Outreach for the American Red Cross Biomedical Services, Connecticut Region. She began her blood banking career as a recruiter in 1980 after nine years as a history/herstory teacher. Carolyn was at Florida Blood Services for 17 years in the roles of account manager, director of recruitment and collections, director of education and Vice President of Community Relations. She then worked as a Vice President at New York Blood Center before moving back to her home state of Connecticut.

Carolyn joined the ADRP Board in 2004 and has served as the Chair of the Career Development Committee. Her past volunteer leadership roles include chairperson of recruitment committees for the Florida Association of Blood Banks, the AABB, and the National Marrow Donor Program. In 1997 Carolyn received the Florida Association of Blood Banks award for Executive of the Year and the AABB Chapman-Franzmeier recruitment award for exceptional leadership in donor recruitment locally and nationally.

John Hagins of the American Red Cross was selected as President-Elect. began his career with the American Red Cross (ARC) in 1987. John’s first eight years of his ARC tenure were spent in hospital services. John served with progressing responsibilities up to assistant director responsible for blood service delivery to more than 100 hospital customers. For the last 10 years, John has been responsible on a director level for various activities related to donor recruitment. As of July 2000, John has been the senior director responsible for all areas of recruitment, collections and marketing / communications. He is an active member of AABB and has presented on multiple topics including quality of life for collections staff, managing recruitment activities and apheresis platelet donor recruitment and collection. John was ADRP’s Finance Committee chair for 2007-08. He is also currently serving the AABB donor recruitment / public relations committee.

Gavin Evans of the UK’s National Blood Service is immediate past president; MaryJane Thomsen, consultant, is secretary; and Christine Foran of New York Blood Center is treasurer; Scott Caswell of Community Blood Center in Wisconsin is vice president; Joe Ridley of Carter BloodCare is the other vice president.

New Board of Directors At-Large members include: David Graham, Community Blood Center in Kansas; Matt Granato, America’s Blood Centers; Kelly High, American Red Cross/National Headquarters; and Betsy Ward, Memorial Blood Center. Click on the following links for biographical information on the Executive Commitee and Board of Directors.

(new.scotsman.com) – by Kate Foster - The world's first trial to make blood transfusions free of the human form of 'mad cow disease' has been launched by doctors in Scotland.

Scotland on Sunday can reveal that heart patients in Edinburgh who need blood will be offered donations which have been 'cleaned' in a filter to remove the proteins – or prions – which cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.It is hoped the treatment will lead to the eradication of vCJD from the human blood supply and eventually from the population.

The trials are being undertaken by the Scottish Blood Transfusion service using a filter developed by an international medical supplies firm MacoPharma. The device, which works in a similar way to a coffee filter, removes the prions which cause the disease from donated blood.

It is believed that at least 1,200 Scots have vCJD, a fatal disease that causes brain damage, but do not yet know it.

Currently patients receiving blood transfusions are at risk of contracting the disease from a donor who does not even know they are infected.

The disease is caused by eating meat infected with BSE. It is triggered by an abnormal prion, which affects the central nervous system.

Dr Marc Turner, scientific director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, said yesterday that healthy volunteers who have taken part in the trials have shown no ill effects from receiving the filtered blood so similar trials can now be carried out on patients.

He said: "There are concerns about the risk of vCJD in blood supplies. If we can show these filters are likely to be effective and are safe, it's an extremely promising development."

If the process is deemed safe and effective it will be a major advance in the fight against vCJD. It will cost around £8m a year to run in Scotland.

So far 163 people in the UK are known or suspected to have died from the disease. A total of four people are thought to have received the infection through donated blood. vCJD was first identified more than a decade ago but it has taken scientists many years to work out how to tackle it because the abnormal prions are so complex.

The major risk factors for contracting the disease were eating infected meat during the Eighties and Nineties and through blood transfusions. Following changes in farming standards, the only remaining risk factor is blood transfusion. Measures taken so far to reduce transmission risks within blood supplies include removing white blood cells from donated blood. This only cuts the risk by about half however.

Tests on the prion filter using animals have so far shown that it prevents the prions being passed on from a blood donor to a recipient.

The filter contains a resin that binds to the prions and removes them from the blood.

However, it is currently virtually impossible to test whether it stops the spread of the infection in humans because the only way to find out would be to carry out invasive tests on blood recipients' brains and other body parts like tonsils. Instead Turner and his colleagues believe that the fact it works in animals means it would also work in humans.

Hospitals in other parts of the UK and Ireland are also taking part in the study.

Cases of vCJD appear to have peaked from 1996 to 2003. In 2000 there were 28 deaths from vCJD, while there were only five in 2007. However there are concerns many more people could simply be incubating the disease.

The development was welcomed by patient groups. Gill Turner, national coordinator for the CJD Network, said: "We welcome anything that will make blood safer. Hopefully each step that is taken will eventually lead to vCJD being eliminated."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said yesterday: "We believe that the safety of blood is paramount and welcome and support any proven advances in reducing risk to patients from blood donations.

"Further information on the outcomes of ongoing research is required."

(The Guardian, UK) - by Ben Goldacre - In the United States last week the papers went crazy: artificial blood products cause a 30% increase in deaths, and a 2.7-fold increase in heart attacks, according to a new meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama). There is, incidentally, an ongoing trial of these products in the UK.  

A meta-analysis is a study where you take lots of individual trials, some of which may be quite small, and effectively put all the figures on to one big spreadsheet. This allows you to get a more accurate answer about an outcome, like death, because the numbers of patients involved are then much larger.

In many respects the first part of this story was similar to the antidepressants scandal - the revelation earlier this year by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency that GlaxoSmithKline had withheld evidence that one of its drugs, Seroxat, increased suicide risk among teenagers.

A large number of trials had been done, over a decade, but the results had not been published, languishing unseen in the files of the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA). According to the Jama paper, many of the companies involved even declined to hand over data to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers doing the meta-analysis. When one of the firms, Biopure, declined, the researchers were forced to rely on a pooled analysis of their data from the FDA with inadequate information.

The data from two trials of PolyHeme, one of the artificial blood products, were only available from Northfield Laboratories' press releases, and a request for more details was again declined. It's possible there are also trials which were never made public.

But the bad behaviour of firms not being open is never as interesting as the science. The joy of meta-analyses is that they can help to avoid what is called a "type II error": missing a genuine finding. This meta-analysis was a perfect example of how useful the tool can be. Individually, none of these artificial blood trials produced a damning result, largely because they were too small to do so: with small numbers of patients, and even smaller numbers of deaths. They sometimes showed an excess of deaths in the artificial blood group, and sometimes in the normal donor blood group. Only when the numbers were pooled was the dramatic risk revealed.

But that's not the interesting bit. Academic researchers have been talking about something called "cumulative meta-analysis" for 25 years: essentially, you run a rolling meta-analysis on a given intervention, and each time a trial is completed, you plug the figures in to get your updated pooled result, to get a feel for where the results are headed, and most usefully, have a good chance of spotting a statistically significant answer as soon as it becomes apparent, without risking lives on further unnecessary research.

In the case of the artificial blood products, the NIH researchers did a cumulative meta-analysis, adding in each study year by year, and found that if this had been done all along, the answer - that artificial blood products increase heart attacks and death - would have been apparent in 2000, rather than now. The subsequent studies after 2000 were arguably unethical, and ethics committees, if they had been given access to this information, might not have given permission to throw more good lives after bad.

But for all the venality of hidden data, this issue transcends good and evil: important answers can also be missed simply because people don't look. The earliest example of a cumulative meta-analysis is from 1981, in a paper that looked at the routine use of antibiotics during surgery to prevent infection. They showed, by doing a cumulative meta-analysis, that research had continued to be done for years after antibiotics had been shown to be effective at preventing infections during operations and reducing the death rate afterwards. Because this was missed, thousands of patients had been randomly allocated to receive placebo control pills in studies, denied access to a treatment known to be effective, and many of them would have died unnecessarily, simply for the lack of a bit of clever number-crunching.

Ideas like cumulative meta-analysis from the world of evidence have saved countless lives, and they could save many more. They are clever and they are fascinating. They are the same tools you hear rubbished by big pharma, by homeopaths and by lobbyists from the $56bn food supplement industry. And you will never find them celebrated, anywhere, in popular culture.