We’re changing our name and our format

From our next issue, Med e-News will be called iTransfuse Express. News stories will be added to www.transfusion.com.au immediately, and iTransfuse Express will be a digest of these stories. iTransfuse is the banner that extends across medical education and information for health professionals at the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.

Watch out for iTransfuse Express in your inbox from early next year.

Have a Merry Christmas and we'll see you in the New Year.
 

The Blood Service will be relocating its NSW/ACT Operations Unit from its current site at 153 Clarence Street, Sydney, NSW to new purpose built facilities at:

17 O’Riordan Street, Alexandria, Sydney NSW 2015

The relocation will be occur during April 2011, and prior to this there will be many activities occurring throughout the business to ensure the move is achieved effectively.

It’s intended that the relocation to the new Blood Service facility will not impact on our ability to maintain the supply of blood and blood products to NSW/ACT.

The new location will offer improved production and laboratory facilities, open plan workplace facilities with natural light and allow the organisation to incorporate all operational functions into one facility.

We’ll keep you up to date as the move progresses.
 

One of the new features of our updated transfusion website is a calendar of education events. It's a resource for all education activities, so you can see planned webinars, conferences, and other education sessions.

This month’s activities are displayed on the calendar on our home page at www.transfusion.com.au. Simply click on this to go through to a fully functioning calendar that allows you to flip to months ahead.

The National Medical Education team is working on 2011 curriculum now and adding events as we confirm them.

Staff from around the Blood Service, as well as health professionals from the broader community with an interest in blood and transfusion, have been registering in advance for planned webinars.

If you would like to join the list, please send an email to iTransfuse@ redcrossblood.org.au and we will join you up.
 

In 2004, the transfusion website was first devised to make the Transfusion Medicine Manual (TMM) an online resource. The final TMM print and CD versions were distributed in 2003.

www.transfusion.com.au covers all elements of the TMM including transfusion practice, products and safety. There is also advice on risk and consent, inventory management, and links to transfusion resources created by the Blood Service and other organisations with an interest in transfusion medicine.

In our new transfusion site, we merged the two areas of the old site so that information is easier to find—one site equals one search engine—and is not repeated throughout the site.

All the information from the old transfusion manual site is still there in the new site—updated and regularly reviewed by experts in respective areas.

We also created a single resource area so that forms, guidelines and materials to assist in transfusion practice are all grouped together.

There are links from the most popular pages of the old site, so that saved links redirect regular website users to the new pages that are relevant to them. 

As the website is new, it takes a little while to find your way around the first few times you visit. Try using the site map http://www.transfusion.com.au/sitemap to see a list of the website pages; and don’t forget the search engine—it’s there to help.
 

Are you going straight to the source?

We have redirected main pages from our old website to the new version, but it has come to our attention that some people had very old links saved, dating back to the first version of our site, which will not redirect anymore.

There are redirects from the most popular pages of our previous site, but updating your bookmarks is a good New Year's resolution.

Send us your postal address

We have been revising our Medilink mail list and we thank everyone who responded to our survey earlier this year. We had a high response rate and that gave us a good indication of what you want to know and how you like to receive information from us.

We have added all laboratories, Directors of Nursing and General Managers/CEOs of hospitals to the mail list. If you would like to receive our print publication, Medilink, which contains updated residual risk estimates for transfusion-transmitted infection and articles about transfusion issues, please send your postal details to iTransfuse@redcrossblood.org.au 

 

RCPA Pathology Update 2011
4 – 6 March
Melbourne, Australia

Transfusion Update 2011
11 – 13 May
Adelaide, South Australia

Program details to be announced in the new year.

7th IABS symposium on advances in transfusion safety
15 – 17 July
Singapore, Singapore