Clinical appropriateness of blood component transfusion: regulatory requirements and standards set by the Scientific Society in Italy.

In recent years regulatory requirements and standards have focused mainly on issues concerning safety, quality and traceability of blood components. Less attention has been devoted by regulators on appropriateness of transfusion medicine. Consequently, improvements in transfusion practice appear to be rather limited. In his article, Grazzini provides an overview of the regulatory requirements and standards set in Italy to improve clinical transfusion medicine. Some considerations on how to reach this goal through regulations are reported in Strengers’ accompanying editorial.

– Giovanni Inghilleri