National Blood Authority Australia
Annual Report 2010–11
Part 4: HORIZON SCANNING
4.1 INTRODUCTION
The NBA monitors international developments that may influence the management of blood and blood products in Australia. The horizon scanning program, which forms an integral part of our knowledge network, provides up to date intelligence on emerging or potential issues, processes, techniques and technologies relevant to the sector. It enables us to provide current, proactive and informed analysis to governments. We monitor advances in processes, techniques, and technologies that enable the NBA to fulfil its functions under the National Blood Agreement (clause 2 refers).
Our ongoing focus is on national and international information on:
- issues that may have an impact on global supply, demand and pricing—for example, changes in company structure, capacity, organisation and ownership
- diseases or pandemics (including those that are endemic to and those that are not yet detected in Australia) that may have an impact on supply or risks to the safety of products.
- developments in testing methods, vaccines and disease control strategies that could potentially mitigate risks to supply
- new product developments and applications
- global regulatory and blood practice trends, including donor safety
- emerging risks that could potentially put financial or other pressures on the Australian sector.
This part of the report gives a summary of the core developments that have come to our attention during the year. The detail and the breadth of the coverage continue to be influenced by the very positive feedback we receive from this chapter annually.
The NBA collects a large volume of material. The material which is included here is not intented to be comprehensive nor a complete depiction of the issues. Rather, we have provided extracts, snippets and examples to illustrate the vast array of factors that are or may impact on international and domestic blood supplies and industry operations. In particular, we have assumed a level of understanding of some issues and events that have been covered in previous annual reports. To view annual reports from previous years, go to: www.nba.gov.au/About us/Publications/NBA Annual Report. Selected acronyms are contained in Appendix 12.
Given the extent of the footnotes for Part 4: Horizon scanning we have organised them as endnotes which can be located at the end of the chapter.
Figure 4.1 identifies the themes covered in this part of the report.
