1. Background Information

Dear Colleague,
 
Thank you for taking the time to answer this international ESA survey on the use of blood products in the pre-hospital field. 
Blood products are a life saving commodity in the treatment of major trauma.
However, it is currently not clear, whether their pre-hospital use is of benefit to seriously injured patients.
Despite this lack of evidence an increasing number of pre-hospital services have started using blood products. 
With this survey we would like to establish how widespread the use of bloodproducts amongst European HEMS providers is, what the main indications are, and your opinion about using pre-hospital blood products.  
 
Depending on the results of our survey we are planning to create an international research platform to help identifying patient groups that may benefit from pre-hospital blood products and also to help rationalising the use of this precious resource.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: To avoid duplification this survey should be filled in by the lead clinician (doctor or paramedic) of the addressed HEMS post. As practice and governance can vary significantly within organisations we would appreciate if each HEMS post could fill in the survey separately.

We look very much forward to hearing from you!
 
With the very best wishes,
 
Karl Thies (UK), Kurt Rützler (USA), Jochen Hinkelbein (Germany), Luca Brazzi (Italy), and Lorenz Theiler (Switzerland)
ESA Subcommittee 10 Emergency Medicine, Resuscitation and Trauma 

email: ssc10@esahq.org

Please note: Your replies will be kept confidentially and anonymised for possible publication. As the data processing is taking place in the UK and the temporary data storage in Ireland, this survey will be conducted under UK and Irish regulations and in line with the UK Data Protection Act 1998 and the ruling of the European Court of Justice from October 6th 2015.
According to UK legislation this survey is classifed as a service evaluation and does not require approval of an ethical committee.
 
 
 

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