Announcing World Cord Blood Day 2021 - Educating Healthcare Professionals & Expectant Parents9/7/2021
 We are pleased to announce World Cord Blood Day 2021 (WCBD 2021) will take place on November 15th, 2021 for students, expectant parents and healthcare professionals around the globe. More than 40,000 cord blood transplants have been performed worldwide since 1988 to treat over 80 life-threatening diseases. Yet, cord blood is still thrown away as medical waste in the majority of births, often due to a simple lack of awareness. In the new post-Covid world, we can and must improve this.
About Save the Cord Foundation Save the Cord Foundation (a 501c3 non-profit) was established to advance cord blood education. The Foundation provides non-commercial information to parents, health professionals and the public regarding methods for saving cord blood, as well as current applications using cord blood and the latest research. Learn more at www.SaveTheCordFoundation.org . About QuickSTAT Global Life Science Logistics
Every day, QuickSTAT, a part of Kuehne+Nagel, safely and reliably moves thousands of critical shipments around the world. For over forty years, QuickSTAT has been entrusted with transporting human organs and tissue for transplant or research, blood, blood products, cord blood, bone marrow, medical devices, and personalized medicine, 24/7/365. QuickSTAT’s specially trained experts work with hospitals, laboratories, blood banks and medical processing centers, and utilize the safest routes to ensure integrity, temperature control and chain of custody throughout the transportation process. Learn more at www.quickstat.aero .  Join us on September 18th!The World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), a global association of blood stem cell, marrow and/or cord blood registries or organisations representing over 39 million blood stem cell donors from 55 different countries, announces the celebration of the 7th World Marrow Donor Day (WMDD) on 18th September 2021. Following the past six years of successful celebrations of this special day, the world again will come together on the 3rd Saturday of September. The primary purpose is to thank all donors and highlight global cooperation in blood stem cell transplantation. “The World Marrow Donor Association was established 27 years ago to ensure that donations of stem cells by altruistic volunteers could find their way to the patients who needed them, independent of geography and politics. World Marrow Donor Day is the embodiment of the value, respect and indeed love we in the transplantation community (and particularly the patients suffering from life-threatening diseases and their families) offer to our donors. It is only one day but it reflects what we think year-round in a concentrated way.” – Jeff Szer, Past President of the WMDA. Due to the ongoing global pandemic WMDA has again decided to celebrate WMDD 2021 virtually. This year’s online event will be a 24hr Live Stream, broadcasted on YouTube (https://youtu.be/lVwJp5hJDuM) and made possible in collaboration with Golden Partner and supporter of the event, time:matters, a global courier company that specialises in life-saving transports. On every continent, patients, donors, blood stem cell and cord blood organisations have prepared videos to share in the celebration and to spread awareness.  What can we (you) do? First and foremost, we want to express our gratitude to all of those parents who have donated their child's cord blood to the Arizona Public Cord Blood Program. This outstanding state-run collection program has given Arizonian parents the possibility to donate directly thanks to participating hospitals in the Arizona. As the Official Education Partner for this program, we know how hard the AZ Public Cord Blood program team works to collect, process, store and distribute these life-saving cord blood units. We want to take this opportunity on World Marrow Donor Day to say THANK YOU! Second, we want to ask you to learn more. Take advantage of the World Marrow Donor Day live stream to learn more about the Arizona Public Cord Blood Program. Join the live stream to watch our interview with Kristen Wilt, nurse and cord blood program co-ordinator at the Tucson Medical Center. She will explain in detail how cord blood collection works, how cord blood units are used and what makes the Arizona program special. It's a must see for parents and anyone wanting to understand how cord blood donation works. Show your support and watch the live stream (starting September 18th), click "I SUPPORT SAVING LIVES":  Third, we ask you to share what you learn. Many families contact us frustrated that cord blood donation is not possible at their local hospital. Unfortunately, an easy answer does not exist. Public donation programs will only increase if awareness increases. You can help! Please share what you learn about public cord blood donation with the decision makers at your local hospital, local government and local parent groups. Even one conversation could save a life.
 We are proud to announce the 6th Annual Arizona Cord Blood Conference: Bridging the Gap. Join us for this free virtual conference on April 22nd, 2021 (9am-1pm MST) presented by the Arizona Public Cord Blood Program. RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE (until August 30th for registered attendees). It has been a little over a year since Covid-19 started spreading around the world, disrupting life as we know it. While lockdowns have brought life to a standstill in some regions, healthcare professionals have pushed forward with urgent, life-saving treatments for cancer patients in need of stem cell transplants. Cord blood has been an important part of this story, especially for those patients whose bone marrow donor may no longer be available. In these situations, cord blood has been bridging the gap. In reality, cord blood has helped to bridge the gap between stem cell donors and patients for well over 30 years. Today, the medical community recognizes cord blood for its unique qualities: easier to match than bone marrow, available off-the-shelf in just days, collected easily, . . . the advantages are numerous. Cord blood is also key to increasing diversity of stem cell donors on public registries, like the Arizona Public Cord Blood program. Thanks to the fact cord blood donation is free and easily done after the birth of a child, donation programs can be targetted in regions where there may be a larger population of ethnic minorities. By increasing diversity on public stem cell registries (such as the NMDP BeTheMatch registry), more transplant matches can be found for patients in need. Cord blood allows us to bridge the gap between a donor and a patient in need.
For students interested in possible STEM careers, this conference will provide a unique opportunity to learn directly from those in the cord blood industry and discover new opportunities that are emerging thanks to exciting research and current uses for cord blood stem cells. For health professionals, you will have the opportunity to meet with leading scientists in this field and understand how your practice could immediately have impact or benefit from cord blood collections. For hospital administrators and policy makers, this conference will be key to better understanding the current status of the cord blood industry and how we can work together to improve it.  This event is presented by
the Arizona Public Cord Blood Program in collaboration with the Arizona Department of Health Services (Arizona Biomedical Research Center), Dignity Health, Tucson Medical Center, Valleywise Health and Save the Cord Foundation. |
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