Héma-Québec is a non-profit organization that supplies blood and other biological products of human origin to hospitals for the Canadian province of Quebec. It was created on March 26, 1998 as a successor to the Canadian Red Cross Blood Program and the Canadian Blood Agency on recommendation of the 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 and for the first operating in Canada. It also collects, processes and distributes human tissues such as corneas, skin, bones, heart valves and tendons, and manages the only in Quebec. Héma-Québec also manages the only 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 specialized in collecting plasma opened its doors in Trois-Rivières. Since then, Héma-Québec has opened additional Plasmavie centres in Sherbrooke, Gatineau and Saguenay. The Saguenay and Gatineau centres also have space dedicated to whole blood donations. Plasmavie centres collect plasma by apheresis. Plasma collected at the centres is processed to manufacture drugs such as immunoglobulins, 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 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 tissues, including corneas. Héma-Québec also collects the tissues, transforms them and distributes them to hospitals.
Héma-Québec manages Québec’s only . The organization recruits cord blood donor mothers, trains teams of midwives and obstetricians, and qualifies, transforms and stores the cord blood.
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:
