Brad Hart is a fifth-generation medical professional and comes from a history of medical innovation. His great, great grandfather, Andrew Jackson Hart, was an OBGYN; his great grandfather, Arch Coombs Hart, was a practicing dentist, and one of the first  to lecture that tooth decay was caused by bacteria; his grandfather, Frank L. Hart, was…

Earlier this year, milestone donor Audrey Gold had a very special donation appointment. At the same time that she gave her 164th donation at Stanford Blood Center, her 16-year-old son, Evan, gave his very first. Audrey has been donating blood for over 30 years. Her first experience with donation was back in college, when her…

By Harry Sussmann, Operational Excellence (OpEx) Director On April 28, Stanford Blood Center became the first blood center of its size in the nation to use pathogen reduction technology, or PRT, on 100% of its transfusable platelets produced. With this milestone, SBC is ensuring that the platelet units our donors generously provide are as safe…

By Krista Thomas, Communications Strategist It’s not uncommon for SBC team members to receive questions as to why SBC does not pay donors who generously give their blood. Do we not value our donors? Is it too costly? Too logistically challenging? The short answer is, if a donation is paid for, hospitals are unlikely to...

By Krista Thomas, Communications Strategist In early 2019, Kristi Trog and her husband Josh were thrilled but also surprised to find out that Kristi was pregnant with their first child. The pair counted this news as a true miracle. Though they knew that having a baby later in life would mean they needed to prepare…

By Dr. Tho Pham, Chief Medical Officer Did you know that many blood group systems exist beyond ABO (A, B, O and AB) and Rh (+ and -)? And that many donors have rare combinations of certain clinically relevant blood groups? While this may come as a surprise, it may make more sense when you…

By Karen Hendryk, Donor Recruitment Manager Immediate Impact of COVID Though March 2020 was when an official pandemic was declared, February 2020 was when SBC was hit with one of the most significant challenges thus far: cancellation of blood drives. Prior to spring of last year, SBC collected more than half of all its blood…

By Krista Thomas, Communications Strategist Ernest Boyd has been giving blood for decades. What started as a way to save the lives of others, however, has saved his own life multiple times.   Becoming a Platelet Donor Ernest first really committed to giving blood in the early 1990s. Though he had donated one or two…

We would like to take this opportunity to provide some additional information about coronavirus and blood donation. Our hope is that people interested in donating blood consider all of the facts of the situation, namely that COVID-19 does not pose any special risk to blood donors during the donation process or from attending blood drives....

In honor of International Women's Day, we interviewed just a few of the incredible women in leadership who make our work possible here at SBC. See what they had to say about their experience as women in their field below. Who has empowered/inspired you to be the leader you are today? Alison Hopkins “My mom...

This Black History Month, we are thrilled to celebrate the accomplishments of Charles Drew, a Black doctor who broke down barrier after barrier on his mission to help patients and eventually become the “father of blood centers.” Charles Drew was born to a middle-class family in 1904 in Washington, D.C. Growing up, his parents impressed…

Last year, donor Ben Brian hit an incredible milestone with SBC: his 500th donation. When asked what motivates him to give blood, among the usual answer of service to others and the free cookies, Ben mentioned that he has been consistently motivated by the dedication of his wife, Gail. Gail is also a milestone donor,…