Héma-Québec is a non-profit organization that supplies blood and other biological products of human origin to hospitals for the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. The organization's headquarters is located in the

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

borough of

Saint-Laurent, Quebec Saint-Laurent () is a Montreal borough, borough of the city of Montreal, Canada, located in the northern part of the Island of Montreal, island. Although it is no longer an independent city, it is still commonly known as Ville Saint-Laurent (''C ...

, and it was created on March 26, 1998, as a successor to the

Canadian Red Cross The Canadian Red Cross Society ()Krever Commission. As a supplier, Héma-Québec is responsible for recruiting donors and for collecting, testing and processing the blood products, and delivering them to hospitals. Supplying cell and tissue products to hospitals is also an important component of its mandate. Héma-Québec is responsible for the Stem Cell Donor Registry for Quebec and for the first public cord blood bank operating in Canada. It also collects, processes and distributes human tissues such as corneas, skin, bones, heart valves and tendons, and manages the only public human tissue bank in Quebec. Héma-Québec also manages the only public mothers' milk bank in Quebec, whose purpose is to meet the needs of very premature newborns. It recruits and screen donors and then processes and tests the milk and distributes it to hospitals.

Plasmavie - plasma donor lounges

In November 2013, the first Plasmavie lounge specialized in collecting plasma opened its doors in

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, ; ) is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

. Since then, Héma-Québec has opened additional Plasmavie centres in

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, directly across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region of Quebec and is also p ...

and Saguenay. The Saguenay and Gatineau centres also have space dedicated to whole blood donations. Plasmavie centres collect plasma by

apheresis Apheresis ( ἀφαίρεσις (''aphairesis'', "a taking away")) is a medical technology in which the blood of a person is passed through an apparatus that separates one particular constituent and returns the remainder to the circulation. ...

. Plasma collected at the centres is processed to manufacture drugs such as

immunoglobulins An antibody (Ab) or immunoglobulin (Ig) is a large, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as bacteria and viruses, including those that cause di ...

, which are used, for example, in the treatment of patients with immune system deficiencies. Under the supervision of Héma-Québec, plasma is also fractionated and transformed into medications that are sold to

Québec Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...

hospitals in the same way as standard blood products.

Human tissues

Héma-Québec works to raise awareness among the public and hospital professionals about the importance of referring deceased donors for the collection of

human tissue In biology, tissue is an assembly of similar cells and their extracellular matrix from the same embryonic origin that together carry out a specific function. Tissues occupy a biological organizational level between cells and a complete organ ...

s, including

cornea The cornea is the transparency (optics), transparent front part of the eyeball which covers the Iris (anatomy), iris, pupil, and Anterior chamber of eyeball, anterior chamber. Along with the anterior chamber and Lens (anatomy), lens, the cornea ...

s. Héma-Québec also collects the tissues, transforms them and distributes them to hospitals.

Cord blood bank

Héma-Québec manages Québec's only public cord blood bank. The organization recruits

cord blood Cord blood (umbilical cord blood) is blood that remains in the placenta and in the attached umbilical cord after childbirth. Cord blood is collected because it contains stem cells, which can be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders ...

donor mothers, trains teams of midwives and obstetricians, and qualifies, transforms and stores the

Mothers' milk bank

Since spring 2014, Héma-Québec has also been providing mothers’ milk to mothers of premature babies who are unable to breastfeed their newborn child.

Board directors and committees

Héma-Québec's board of directors is composed of representatives of blood donation volunteers, hospital transfusion physicians, hospital administrators, the public health system, the research and business communities, and blood product recipients, as well as the organization's President and CEO, Nathalie Fagnan. All members of the Board of Directors—with the exception of the President and CEO—are appointed by the Québec government following consultation with various authorities representing stakeholders in the transfusion chain. The President and CEO is appointed by Héma-Québec's board of directors. The Board receives recommendations from three advisory committees: * Safety Advisory Committee * Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee * Recipient Representatives Advisory Committee

References

External links

Official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hema-Quebec Medical and health organizations based in Quebec Non-profit organizations based in Montreal Saint-Laurent, Quebec Blood banks in Canada