On 17 September, World Patient Safety Day, the multi-stakeholder Blood and Beyond initiative released a new briefing, “Towards better ‘blood health’ in Europe”, about the burden of anaemia in Europe.

Blood is vital to our health. Anaemia, a serious blood disorder, affects about 28 million Europeans.

Anaemia impacts patients, health systems and economies across Europe. It is crucial to promote and improve “blood health” across Europe through European Union (EU) and national-level policy action. Yet, unlike well-known political priorities such as “heart health” and “mental health”, blood health is under-recognised.

The new briefing from Blood and Beyond presents anaemia as a major public health and patient safety issue and highlights the need to rethink the value of good blood health. The publication highlights how urgent EU-level action to support a patient-centric approach to anaemia care that focuses on prevention, early detection, and good disease management is vital.

The briefing will be complemented by another publication providing policy solutions to improve blood health and drive PBM implementation.

Please find the briefing, “Towards better ‘blood health’ in Europe”, here.