Maintaining a safe, sufficient and accessible supply of critical and essential tissues for human application during a pandemic is of vital importance to public health systems that support donation and transplantation. With this in mind, the EDQM organised a webinar for the tissue donation and transplantation communities on 28 April 2020 to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting national programmes for tissue donation from deceased donors and daily practice in tissue establishments, and to support forward-looking decisions.
The EDQM’s long-standing expertise in this field underpinned the organisation of the webinar, which took place in collaboration with national health authorities and tissue establishments from some of the most affected European countries. More than 1000 participants from 65 countries all over the world registered to attend this event. They had the opportunity to ask questions on the most pressing issues in this field during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EDQM would like to thank the moderators, speakers and all those who joined the webinar for sharing their questions, knowledge and experience to date, and for their unceasing efforts on the frontlines of this pandemic to ensure the safety of patients and healthcare professionals working in tissue establishments. The success of this event showed that the topic of the webinar was relevant and presented an invaluable learning opportunity. As the number of cases rises throughout many countries in Europe, it is only by working together that this fight can be won.
Interested parties who missed the event live can access the programme, presentations and the video recording upon registration.
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