The NHLBI Clinical Trials Network in transfusion medicine and hemostasis: an overview.

Transfusion Medicine is a broad discipline that affects the health care of patients from many medical disciplines. Despite the large impact of transfusion therapies on the management of patients with a variety of diseases, there are few clinical trials that evaluate the indications or the effectiveness of transfusion therapies. To respond to this need for better clinical data, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health established a clinical trials network in Transfusion Medicine and Hemostasis. Following a competitive selection process, 17 university medical centers and a data coordinating center joined together to collaboratively address clinical questions in transfusion medicine and hemostasis. The activities, organization, and scope of the network is described below. Examples of clinical trials currently in the network "pipeline" are briefly summarized as an overview to more detailed presentations given elsewhere in this symposium.