The Changing Landscape of Transfusion Medicine: 2004–2015

摘要

Born at the dawn of the 20th Century, Transfusion Medicine has seen tremendous progress and technical achievement during the last 100 years. As the pace of change increases, the prospects for the future are even brighter. This lecture will review the recent past developments and provide conjecture on future advances in each of the following areas: blood donor services, infectious hazards, non‐infectious hazards, process risk, diagnostics and therapeutics. Expectations of what may occur by 2010 and 2015 will be presented. Emerging technologies such as gene array and radio‐frequency identification are likely to produce advances in the safety of blood transfusion therapy. More into the future, nanotechnology may re‐invent the indications for blood therapies. The field of new therapeutics should be the fastest growing area and the lecture will highlight recent advances in drug development and molecular therapeutics as well as highlight coming technology such as robotic surgery. The therapeutic promise offered by nuclear transfer technology and its impact on cellular therapies will be addressed. With these new opportunities come new challenges and the lecture concludes with an impassioned reminder of the real challenges that await us.