Improving Speed and Reliability of Donor Product Delivery

Delivering high-quality cell products on your timeline

Your patients’ lives depend on our ability to deliver the high-quality product you need, when you need it. It’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. And it’s an area where we’ve made significant improvements to be a better partner to you and your patients.

In fact, our commitment to meeting your needs is so strong that improving our service to you is part of our Strategic Plan.

We’re providing you with important donor suitability, eligibility and availability information as early as possible so you can choose a donor who is most likely to fit your needs and be available for your patients. In addition to our focus on service, we are monitoring product quality because we know cell dose is critical for your patient’s outcome.

We’ll continue to improve our services so, together with you, we can save more lives through cellular therapy.

Explore how we’re collaborating with our Network partners to deliver high-quality products for your patients on your timeline.

Time to transplant

Our commitment to meeting your first requested collection date

Our priority is having the donor you request available and ready to donate when you need it for your patient. We’ve put focused effort around improving our ability to achieve product delivery in your requested timeframe.

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In just two years, we have seen a 40% improvement in meeting your first requested collection date. Our NMDP/Be The Match donor center (DC001) now achieves product delivery in your requested timeframe at a rate greater than all other donor centers.

And, on average over the past year, our NMDP/Be The Match donor center (DC001) has achieved a 18% greater product delivery rate in hitting your requested timeframe than the average of all other donor centers.

How we can work together to meet your patient’s transplant timeline

You play a key role in increasing the likelihood a donor product is delivered in your patient’s treatment timeline. From the moment you start a formal search in MatchSource®, enter your patient’s transplant timeline. Knowing your target timeframe upfront is very important even with longer timelines.

When we have this information from the start, we can:

Provide you with more robust case reviews
Offer valuable recommendations on how to best proceed with your searches
Share the target date with our donor center and registry partners, which allows them to have more beneficial conversations with donors earlier on about availability and commitment

We understand it can be difficult to obtain the target timeframe. We are prepared for the possibility it may change throughout the process. By working together, we can better support you and get more patients to transplant on time.

Reducing the time from workup request to donor clearance

Once your center has requested a donor for workup, our goal is to deliver a cleared donor to you as quickly as possible. We have made significant improvements in reducing the number of days from workup request to donor clearance since our focused efforts began in FY18.

From the start of FY18 to July 31 FY20, DC001 and our contract centers reduced the median days from workup request to clearance from 21 to 14 days. This is a week or more sooner than all other U.S. and international suppliers.

Just as significant, our percent of donors that achieve clearance in 14 days or less is nearly four times higher than all other donor centers.

Our U.S. donor centers are committed to serving our transplant center partners and your patients with fast and reliable service. Their focus on improving donor clearance times is improving our ability to deliver the product you need in the timeframe you need it.

Donor availability

Using data to improve donor availability at CT

Most often, a donor’s path to collection begins with your request for confirmatory typing (CT). We’ve implemented programs aimed at improving donor availability at CT and conversion to workup and collection.

Donor Readiness Score indicates likelihood of availability at CT

To help make the donor selection process more predictable, your donor search results in MatchSource® include a Donor Readiness Score (DRS). You can use the DRS as an indication of the likelihood of a donor being available at the time of CT request.

The DRS may be useful as a tiebreaker in cases where a patient has many equally matched donors.

The score takes many factors into account, such as:

Age
Race
Gender
Registry/donor center
Engagement activities
Donor recommitment

This score is dynamic and can change based on engagement and proactive contact by the donor with their registry.

Access additional information on the Donor Readiness Score.

Quick resolution of CT requests significantly impacts donor availability and conversion

In 2019, we gathered actionable data that can be used to help improve the speed and reliability of our services. Our data found that across all ethnicities, the longer it takes an available donor to complete their CT appointment, the less likely they will be to convert to workup and collection.

Donors are most likely to reach workup and collection within 6 months if they complete their CT appointment within 7 days of the initial request.

Based on this information, we are working with our donor center partners to increase the speed at which donor CT requests are processed and resolved. By prioritizing CT resolution, we effectively improve donor availability and conversion across all the populations we serve.

Access additional information on the CT resolution data.

Our initiatives to improve donor availability and meet your time to transplant start the moment a donor joins Be The Match Registry. Learn more about these initiatives on our Be The Match Registry Recruitment and Availability webpage.

Product quality

Product quality is a critical link between the donor and a successful outcome your patient. However, we know product quality can vary.

That’s why we’ve implemented programs to evaluate not only if you receive products on time and from optimal donors, but also that you receive a high-quality marrow or PBSC product each and every time.

Striving to meet your requested cell dose

While we always strive to deliver the cell dose our transplant centers partners request for their patients, not every donor produces stem cells at the same volume. Despite their best efforts, our apheresis center and marrow collection center partners may not be able to collect the requested cell dose.

However, we know the minimum cell dose thresholds that will likely lead to engraftment in most cases. We’ve gained this knowledge over the past 30+ years of collecting outcomes data for patients through the CIBMTR®, our research collaboration with the Medical School of Wisconsin. In FY21, we are implementing programs to hold ourselves and our Network apheresis and marrow collection center partners accountable for meeting this threshold.

Reflecting product quality in our operating metrics

We know your patient has the best chance of event-free survival if their donor is younger. We also know your patient needs to receive a high-quality product.

In FY21, we’re changing our operating metrics to reflect the critical importance of delivering the optimal product to your patient.

Successful product delivery to transplant centers in the U.S. will mean your patient received a product from an optimal donor (35 years old or younger) AND met the minimum cell dose threshold.

Partnering with apheresis and marrow collection centers to consistently deliver high-quality products

To help ensure your patients are receiving the product that meets at least the minimum cell dose threshold, we are closely monitoring the performance of each U.S. apheresis and marrow collection center.

Our Partner Liaison team reviews the data collected on the product analysis forms. They meet with their partner centers regularly to discuss performance. Our team develops corrective action plans for those centers that do not maintain the expected metrics for product cell dose.

Based on our product quality metrics, we are prioritizing sending U.S. donors to qualified centers that meet or exceed our expectations for the number of donor collections and cell dose metrics.