Blood donation as a translational research platform: methodological lessons from a prospective echocardiographic study

Blood donation represents a unique opportunity to investigate human physiological responses to controlled blood loss. Despite its potential value for translational research, few studies have described how hospital-based research teams and blood bank can successfully collaborate to conduct interventional studies in blood donors.

To describe the development, implementation, and operational performance of a research platform based on blood donation and to identify key lessons learned from a collaborative project involving a university hospital and a blood bank.

We report the organizational framework and operational metrics of the EDOS study, a prospective interventional study conducted in healthy blood donors. Project development, regulatory processes, governance, stakeholder involvement, recruitment performance, data quality, and participant burden were evaluated. Practical recommendations were derived from the experience of the project team.

The project originated in June 2023 and involved a multidisciplinary collaboration between emergency physicians, transfusion specialists, research methodologists, clinical research staff, and the Etablissement français du sang (EFS, French blood blank,).. Preparation required ten formal meetings, including funding, methodological, and operational coordination meetings. Ethics committee approval was obtained within two months. A total of 66 participants were recruited during nine donation sessions over a 13-day period. Recruitment was completed as planned, with a mean inclusion rate of 7.3 participants per day. Data completeness reached 100%, and all planned follow-up assessments were performed. Research procedures added approximately 30 minutes to the standard donation pathway.

Blood donation provides a highly feasible and reproducible platform for translational human physiology research. Early stakeholder engagement, integration into existing donation workflows, and dedicated methodological support appear to be key determinants of success. The experience gained from the EDOS project may facilitate the development of future donor-based research programs.