Research and development

Research and Development at Héma-Québec: An Overview

Héma-Québec acknowledges the importance of R&D activities in the development of new methods, technologies and products that fulfill the needs of the blood system. To this end, our organization allocates five percent of its operations budget to support R&D activities.

Five main axes of research

1. Blood donors.
2. Safety/quality.
3. Blood utilization.
4. Blood substitutes and their mechanisms of action.
5. Training and education in transfusion medicine.

Héma-Québec’s Board has commissioned a Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee to articulate research projects around these five priorities. The mandate of this committee, which includes external specialists in scientific fields related to blood and transfusion, is to forward recommendations to the Board regarding the general orientations that should be prioritized by R&D.

Furthermore, all R&D projects are reviewed and approved by a Research Ethics Committee. This committee includes external specialists and representatives of blood recipients. The mandate of this committee is to ensure that research proposals comply with ethical standards accepted by the scientific and medical community.