CSTM Standards Committee Update (en anglais)
CSTM Standards
Author: Danielle Watson-Kinney
CSTM Standards Update:
With 2024 coming to an end the CSTM standards committee is preparing for a busy 2025. With plans to host an interactive workshop at the CSTM 2025 conference the committee is meeting monthly and has hopes to see everyone in-person in St. Johns, Newfoundland. 2025 will also bring work on Version 6 to align with CSA Z902-25 once it has been released to the public. Last year as a committee we reviewed the draft and put forth some recommendations.
Where do guidance statements come from?
In April 2018 our first set of 10 guidance statements were added to the revised version 4 of CSTM Standards. We currently have 12 published in version 5 and another 6 in development with 2 to be posted soon. Guidance statements do take up to a year to develop depending on the topic.
Guidance statements are based on questions submitted to “Ask the Standards Committee”, posed on the Transfusion Safety Officer mailing list and common accreditation inspection deficiencies.
The objective of the guidance statements is to provide additional clarity to the intent of the standard based on current knowledge and best practice. They act as a resource when developing their internal compliance to a standard, provincial or national regulation.
Conflict and Resolution:
The committee has very detailed Terms of Reference and over the years there have been times when a topic will come in that we all are very passionate about. In the end if agreement is not met and there hasn’t been enough scientific evidence to support the proposed standard, then the Chair in consultation with the Board will decide.
As committee chair, I would like to give my sincere gratitude to current and past CSTM Standards members that have provided their expertise and sacrificed their personnel time to create the standards and guidance statements. The diversity of the committee both professionally and national representation helps to ensure the standards are created and reviewed without bias I would like to introduce you to the current committee.
Meet the Committee for 2025:
Danielle Watson, Chair, MLT (Ontario)
Donna Berta, RN (Ontario)
Charlie Cacapit, MLT (Manitoba)
Melissa Dawe, MLT (Newfoundland and Labrador)
Jennifer Fesser, MD, FRCPC (Prince Edward Island)
Akash Gupta MD, FRCPC, DRCPSC, CTBS (Ontario)
Eileen McBride, MD, FRCPC (Ontario)
Jessica Okerman, MLT (Alberta)
Clare O’Reilly, RN (British Columbia)
Rebecca Rock, RN (Alberta)
Kristin Rosinski, MLT (British Columbia)
watch for more about the Standards Committee in a "Meet the Committee" blog in February!