Supporting Global Development
The Pillar ‘Supporting Global Development’ supports WMDA members to develop and grow, so that more patients find the most suitable cell source. It has the following objectives at its core:
- Contribute to the availability, quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of the volunteer donors for patients in need of a transplant by developing and maintaining an efficient and strong collaboration amongst WMDA members.
- Assisting WMDA members in continually improving their performance, guided by scientific and ethical principles, ultimately benefiting the donors and patients they serve.
- Raising public and professional awareness about voluntary and non-remunerated donation through the organisation of an annual event known as World Marrow Donor Day.
To accomplish these goals, the leadership of this pillar actively supports WMDA members by promoting collaboration, engaging in regulatory affairs, advocating for best practices, and facilitating the exchange of information and knowledge. The pillar’s oversight is carried out by four committees:
- Registry Operations & Regulation
- Cord Blood Operations
- Donor Recruitment & Retention
- Education
Supporting Global Development
WMDA offers many services to support organisations that operate in the field of voluntary stem cell donation (both blood stem cells and cord blood units). We provide:
- A pathway for new and emerging organisations in the field of voluntary stem cell donation
- Online Education
- A handbook
- A monthly newsletter
- An online platform for international communication and collaboration
- Several forms of membership
- An online database which lists over 41 million voluntary stem cell donors and cord blood units, where hematologists and transplant centers can search to find the best stem cell source for their patients
- International meetings and conferences where latest scientific developments and best practices are shared to further innovate our services for the benefit of donors and patients worldwide
- An Accreditation program for members to guarantee a high level of performance
Are you, or is your organisation interested to benefit from these services? Look into the different memberships we offer (Become a member | WMDA) and be sure to read more about our pathway for new and emerging organisations: New & Emerging Registries pathway | WMDA.
New and emerging organisations
Would you like to learn more about starting a registry or public cord blood bank? Have a look at our pathway for new and emerging organisations: New & Emerging Registries pathway | WMDA
Registry Operations & Regulation
Registries are facing several challenges when providing voluntarily donated bone marrow or blood stem cells to their international partners. Remember the COVID pandemic, which was a challenging time to secure adequate supply of donations throughout the world. To ensure the continuity of the registry operations, WMDA initiated several activities to ensure the continuity of care for the patients in need of a transplant. The primary focus of the Registry Operations & Regulation Committee is to assist registries in emergency situations through the International Emergency Service but also to challenge registries to improve their services that they provide to transplant centres and voluntary donors.
Cord Blood Operations
Most of the public cord blood banks list their cord blood units directly or through a registry in the global pool. WMDA has a committee overseeing how the services provided by cord blood banks can become better. One of the key projects is data quality and transparency of data. Through data quality reports, cord blood banks are challenged to enrich the cord blood data in the global pool, so that transplant can take place quicker.
Donor Recruitment & Donor Retention
Ensuring the well-being of the donor in connection to the donation is a prime task of the donor registries. The WMDA will actively contribute this through:
- Share experience on how to develop and maintain a stable and healthy donor population
- Actively thank donors annually by organising World Marrow Donor Day
- Connect globally in challenging situations to be able to communicate transparent to donors
Education
WMDA offers an excellent online education programme, unique in its field. Check out the different courses we offer in our brochure: click here.
Interested to sign up?
Go to our webshop, purchase the course of your choice and get started right away: Educational Courses – WMDA
World Marrow Donor Day - WMDD
World Marrow Donor Day (WMDD) is celebrated all over the world every 3rd Saturday of September. It’s an initiative of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) to celebrate and thank stem cell donors worldwide who are willing to selflessly share their healthy bone marrow stem cells with patients in need of a transplant. Primarily, it targets the general public, but also seeks to raise awareness among policymakers, public authorities, industry representatives, researchers, health professionals and anyone who has a genuine interest in blood stem cell donation and blood stem cell transplantation.
Read more about WMDD on the special event website: World Marrow Donor Day Website
Meetings
WMDA organises virtual and face-to-face meetings to keep the membership up-to-date and to share experience. The virtual programme consists of monthly educational webinars on different topics, which are communicated through our monthly newsletter, Stem Cell Matters. Have a look at our Meetings & Events Calendar to see when we convene in person: Meetings | WMDA.
