A couple of months ago, we sent an APRU to We Are Blood in Central Texas to work with them to ensure we are providing everything that EMS and others need in a blood fridge. We are always seeking to improve the APRU, create new products to solve real problems, and work directly with those saving lives to make their jobs a little easier.

We recently received a great testimonial from them that we’d like to share with you. We are incredibly proud of what we are accomplishing and our connection with those we work with, and we hope to continue to aid those who save lives around the world every day.

I’ve worked in blood banking for over 25 years, most of that time at We Are Blood. Throughout that time, I’ve been very involved in product transport. I’ve performed validations on many types of equipment and containers, from foam and cardboard containers, to Igloo coolers, to coolers designed to transport blood products to refrigerators, freezers and incubators manufactured for storing blood products.

When pre-hospital transfusion became a hot topic years ago, many blood bankers had reservations about how the safety of blood products would be maintained in an environment where they are not being monitored by trained blood bankers and where products are stored in coolers for long periods of time. Admittedly, I was one of those blood bankers. Since then, I’ve learned 2 things.

First is that when you’re working with people outside of the blood banking industry who share the same passion of saving lives through transfusion, together you can make anything happen. I have worked with some amazing folks locally at Austin Travis County EMS who are now honorary blood bankers. They asked questions, listened to my half hour long answers, and then asked more questions. They took the time to really understand why things must be done certain ways. It has taken months for everyone to get to the comfort level that we are at now, but it was so worth it. I feel the same way about the Delta Development Team. It is clear to me that your team took the time to learn all the details and regulations involved in storing blood products.

The second thing I’ve learned is that because of people like the Delta Development team, blood product storage equipment has come a long way. The APRU your team developed is a stellar piece of equipment. Our QA team performed a validation on it, and we were all so impressed. It maintains temperature better than many of our in-house blood bank refrigerators. It even maintained temperature for 12+ hours after we let the battery die! Other features we liked was that it was simple to use, the battery life is really long, and it has integrated temperature monitoring and alarming so that a separate temperature monitoring device is not needed. Use of the APRU in a pre-hospital setting is the perfect solution for ease of use on the EMS side and assurance of product safety for everyone. Kudos to all of you involved in developing this revolutionary piece of equipment.

Thank you again to We Are Blood, and we can’t wait to see what’s to come for this industry.