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HHS Announces Winners of Giving = Living Blood & Plasma Innovation Challenge
Winners Received Up to $10,000 for Community-Driven Solutions to Increase Blood and/or Plasma Donations and Donor Diversity in the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is announcing the winners of its first-ever Giving = Living Blood & Plasma Innovation Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to stimulate innovation of community-driven solutions to increase blood and/or plasma donations in the U.S. and to increase donations among diverse populations of donors, specifically in Black and Latino communities.
Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood for surgeries, cancer treatments, childbirth, anemia, serious injuries, and blood disorders. For many people, receiving a blood transfusion is lifesaving. Similarly, patients with rare diseases rely on medical treatments every day that are only available when people roll up their sleeves and give source plasma.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. blood and plasma supply dropped to historic lows. While parts of the country have seen improvement, other areas are still struggling to meet the demand. To help address these ongoing challenges, HHS launched the challenge to find innovative, community-driven, sustainable solutions for increasing the blood and/or plasma supply.
"I commend these organizations for stepping forward with their inventive thinking and using their passion to help our country increase our supply of blood and plasma. Blood and plasma are used every day to treat a variety of life-threatening conditions," said HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine. "A steady supply of blood and plasma is essential to the health of our nation and the communities in which we live. We need more people to give blood and plasma regularly and stay committed to giving."
In October, HHS announced the Giving = Living Blood & Plasma Innovation Challenge on Challenge.gov. Winners were selected by a panel of judges and approved by the HHS Award Approving Official. The judges reviewed the level of innovation and creativity, the ability to increase diversity in the blood and/or plasma supply, and how the solution addressed issues and engaged a range of stakeholders.
The nine Giving = Living Blood & Plasma Innovation Challenge winning organizations, teams or individuals will each receive between a $1,800 and $10,000 award. In no particular order, they are:
ImpactLife
Ashi Awasthi, Anika Moorjani, Suraj Rajendran and Prathic Sundararajan
Emily Raycroft
One Smart Lab
New York Blood Center Enterprises
GBS|CIDP Foundation International
J. P. Willey
Slalom
ADRP
The solutions included approaches to creating more personalized donor experiences, using machine learning to build prediction models for blood donor retention. Solutions also included unique education and outreach programs for various populations, including people who are phenotype matches for patients with sickle cell disease, college students, and even video gamers.
The challenge was held as part of the national HHS Giving = Living campaign, launched in August 2022. The campaign is increasing awareness of the importance of donating blood and plasma and encouraging Americans to create new, regular donation habits.
Visit hhs.gov/givingequalsliving to learn more about the importance of donation and make anappointment at a donation location near you.
For general media inquiries, please contact media@hhs.gov.
Content created by Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) Content last reviewed
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