Understanding the demand for phenotyped red blood cell units and requests to perform molecular red blood cell typing for Australian patients.

Background: Australian Red Cross Lifeblood has seen a 50 % increase in demand for phenotyped red blood cell (RBC) units between 2016-2018 and a 30 % increase in demand in 2018 to perform molecular RBC typing on patient samples. Lifeblood conducted a survey to understand transfusion laboratory practices for requesting patient phenotyping and/or molecular RBC typing and for selecting phenotyped RBC units in various patient groups.

Study Design And Methods: An electronic Qualtrics survey form was sent to 296 transfusion laboratories with questions designed to understand the practice of selecting phenotyped RBC units and reasons for requesting extended serology or molecular RBC typing.