Canadian Blood Services decision to "rebrand" unrelated bone marrow registry paying immediate dividends

Transplant News,  March, 2008  

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The Canadian Blood Services' decision last November to "rebrand" its national bone marrow registry by changing the name of the registry from the Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry to the OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Donor Network in an attempt to get more ethnic citizens to sign on has apparently been a major success. (Transplant News, November 2007).

The "rebranding" effort making it easier for all citizens to join has resulted in a 341% increase in the network's target market of young, ethnically diverse Canadians registering thus far, OneMatch said in a press release.

The major jump was fueled by the network's decision to make it easier and faster to register as a potential stem cell donor from anywhere in Canada without having to take a blood test which had been required. The agency said an "overwhelming" 1,100 residents from British Columbia alone signed up during a pilot buccal swab project to recruit new potential donors over the past three months.

Now, instead of the blood test, registering is "as painless as brushing your teeth," OneMatch explained. Once a person registers online at www.onematch.ca, a buccal swab kit is mailed directly to the registrants' home with clear instructions and a postage paid return envelope. When it reaches the Canadian Blood Services HLA lab, the DNA is extracted for typing from the specimen, and the registrants' information is entered into the data base of 227,000 Canadians. Basically, each new registrant could be a potential match for a patient anywhere in the world.

"We are thrilled with the response from the Canadian public to our outreach so far," said Sue Smith, executive director of OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network. "But we have to keep this momentum growing. The face of Canada is changing dramatically, almost daily, and even though the database is growing, finding a stem cell match is still like finding a needle in the haystack. The more diverse OneMatch is, the better the odds to save lives."

Smith pointed out that for individuals who are Aboriginal, Black, Chinese, South Asian or Filipino, the chances of finding a donor is not as good because there aren't enough available donors registered and it's more likely a donor would have to be found in their own community, whereas, Caucasians have about a 75% chance of finding a donor.

The Canadian Blood Services has 4,800 staff and 17,000 volunteers who operate 40 permanent collection sites and more than 20,000 donor clinics annually.

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