ORBCoN: The Network’s 20 Year Anniversary, Two Decades of Growth, Innovation, and Collaboration
Written By: Troy Thompson MLT BAHSc (Hons) ORBCoN Program Manager
Founded in 2006 with support from the Ministry of Health, the network was created to bring an organized, integrated approach to blood management. For twenty years, ORBCoN has advanced the Ontario Blood Utilization Strategy through five core pillars: Utilization of blood components and products; Educational resources; Inventory management; Communication; and Quality and safety.
The network has been building a stronger, safer, and more connected transfusion community across the province and has expanded significantly to build a provincial system of transfusion education, utilization and inventory management tools and fostered a multidisciplinary network of experts dedicated to evidence-based practice and resource optimization.
Education That Elevates Practice
From the addition of nursing and physician clinical project coordinators roles and the annual collaborative hospital site visits, to the widely recognized Bloody Easy series of handbooks to eLearning courses such as: Bloody Easy Lite, Bloody Easy Blood Administration, and the Technologist Assessment, ORBCoN continues to support hospitals in transfusion medicine by providing continuing education, resources to help meet laboratory accreditation requirements, guidance on standards and blood regulations, and initiatives that strengthen transfusion safety by promoting the appropriate use of blood components and products.
Stewardship That Makes a Difference
Inventory and utilization management initiatives have dramatically reduced red blood cell (RBC) outdates. RBC outdates dropped from 2.4% (10,000 units) in 2006 to below 0.5% (less than 2,500 units) every year since 2007. This demonstrates an ongoing commitment from Ontario hospitals and the network to ensure blood components and products will continue to be available to the patients that require them.
Other major initiatives include the Provincial Redistribution Program, Ontario’s first Massive Hemorrhage Protocol (MHP), blood utilization audits, and the Transfusion Quality Improvement Plan, which helped launch the Choosing Wisely Canada Using Blood Wisely campaign. These initiatives have provided provincial and national strategies to improve blood inventory, utilization, and patient safety.
A Central Hub for Transfusion Excellence
ORBCoN’s website has become a central hub for education, presentation/events, tools, and clinical resources, ensuring equitable access and supporting standardized, evidence‑based transfusion practices.
With the ever-changing technology landscape, we hope to promote the adoption of technological advances provincially and nationally to maximize efficient data capture and analysis to better lead strategic quality improvement efforts and subsequent monitoring of these activities. Stay tuned for our MHP quality metrics dashboard coming soon!
As we celebrate two decades of progress, we look forward to continuing to innovate, collaborate, and lead the way in transfusion leadership, safety and stewardship.
A Community Effort: Thank You
We would like to thank all Ontario Transfusion Medicine Services and the network’s multidisciplinary expert registry who have contributed to this work.