Abstract
Transfusion medicine has come a long way from the antique mystical époque’s till today.
Although Landsteiner did breaking research at the end of the 19th Century, it lasted till 1975 when the World Health Assembly in Geneva endorsed a Resolution to develop a safe and effective blood supply based on four key elements: Safety, Purity, Potency and Clinical Efficacy.
Since the outbreak of the AIDS pandemic in the early 1980s WHO started to map the world for the blood systems and presence of these four key elements. Simple recommendations (Aide Mémoires) and distance learning modules (DLM) were initiated and in 2000 a QualIty Management Training (QMT) course was developed. However, what was forgotten was the development of governance, legal frameworks and structured education, An attempt to close that gap was undertaken in Groningen, the Netherlands with the creation of an Academic Institute for International Development of Transfusion Medicine and 4 years later an International Consultation for the development of quality management in transfusion medicine (IQM) on a cost-free basis.