From Donor to Patient: The Science of Safe Blood

The research topic From Donor to Patient: The Science of Safe Blood is dedicated to fostering the production, dissemination, and discussion of high-quality scientific research related to hemotherapy, hemovigilance, transfusion safety, and management of the blood and blood component supply chain. The target audience includes researchers, hemotherapists, biomedicals, transfusion medicine physicians, immunohematologists, health managers, as well as professionals in biomedicine, medicine, biology, biotechnology, and related fields.

The journal will publish original articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, case reports, methodological studies, clinical trials, narrative reviews, letters to the editor, and critical reviews that address, in whole or in part, the following thematic areas:
• Blood donation: donor recruitment, retention, and profile; motivations and barriers to donation; voluntary unpaid donors; educational campaigns;
• Clinical and laboratory screening: donor selection protocols; serological and molecular tests for infectious diseases (HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis, Chagas disease, HTLV, malaria, Zika, dengue, Chikungunya, COVID-19, among others); immunological window; nucleic acid testing (NAT);
• Emerging and re-emerging Infectious threats to Blood Safety: novel pathogens with transfusion transmission potential; epidemiological surveillance of emerging diseases; risk assessment and mitigation strategies for emerging infectious agents; impact of climate change and globalization on pathogen spread and blood safety; travel-related transmission risks; pathogen reduction technologies;
• Immunohematology: ABO and Rh typing; irregular antibodies; crossmatching; hemolytic disease of the newborn; transfusion incompatibilities;
• Blood components and blood derivatives: preparation, fractionation, storage, shelf life, transportation, and quality control of red blood cells, platelets, plasma, cryoprecipitate, and concentrated coagulation factors;
• Patient safety and transfusion: transfusion reactions (acute and delayed), post-transfusion surveillance, transfusion errors, hemovigilance, risk management, safety protocols;
• Patient Blood Management (PBM): strategies to optimize hematopoiesis, reduce blood loss, minimize the need for transfusion, and improve clinical outcomes;
• Emerging technologies: artificial blood, blood substitutes, tissue engineering, biobanks, next-generation sequencing, artificial intelligence applied to hemotherapy, laboratory automation;
• Public policies and blood management: national and international regulations, hemovigilance systems, equitable access to safe blood, costs, supply chain, logistics, and distribution;
• Epidemiological and public health aspects: pathogen prevalence in donors, surveillance of transfusion-transmissible diseases, impact of emerging diseases on blood safety;
• Use of Artificial Intelligence tools to improve blood safety: machine learning and deep learning applications for donor risk prediction; AI-driven serological and molecular test interpretation; predictive modeling for transfusion reactions; automation of immunohematology workflows; AI-based optimization of blood inventory management and distribution; natural language processing for hemovigilance data mining; computer vision for blood component quality assessment; ethical considerations and validation of AI algorithms in transfusion medicine; integration of AI with electronic health records for real-time transfusion safety monitoring;
• Ethics, legal, and social aspects: informed consent, data privacy, donor-recipient anonymity, legal, ethical, and bioethical issues in hemotherapy.

The main aims are disseminate rigorous scientific research that contributes to the safety, quality, and efficiency of the blood supply chain, from donor to patient; promote scientific updating of professionals and researchers through reviews, opinion articles, and updates; strengthen hemovigilance and evidence-based practice in blood transfusion and components; foster international collaboration among researchers, hemotherapy institutions, and regulatory agencies; contribute to the improvement of public blood and transfusion policies, especially in developing countries.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: blood donation; transfusion medicine; hemovigilance; blood safety; immunohematology; blood components; transfusion reactions; patient blood management; hemotherapy; blood substitutes; artificial intelligence; blood supply chain; transfusion-transmitted in

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.