Guidance on implementing patient blood management to improve global blood health status

Patient blood management (PBM) is a new paradigm to manage and preserve an individual’s own blood in health and illness. The overarching aim is to ensure optimal blood health worldwide, which is the condition in which the individual’s blood performs its intended function. Impaired blood health, encompassing conditions such as iron deficiency, anaemia, blood loss and bleeding disorders, affects more than three billion individuals globally and has significant health and economic implications.

PBM has the potential to improve blood health for billions of individuals and to improve safety and outcomes for hundreds of millions of patients. In so doing, it could save billions of health care dollars that could be reallocated where needed.

This guidance document underscores the critical importance of blood health and PBM for global public health.

It emphasizes the urgent need to prioritize blood health as a global public health goal.

PBM is highlighted as a patient-centred approach aimed at improving patient outcomes by managing and preserving the patient’s own blood. It aligns with the principles of health promotion, health protection and disease prevention.