Committees

PURPOSE

ICCBBA Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) are formed to provide stakeholder input to the ongoing development of the ISBT 128 Standard and to provide educational and technical support to facilities implementing ISBT 128.

For TAG participation, ICCBBA recognizes the following groups as stakeholders:

Blood Centers, Tissue Establishments, Cell Therapy Facilities, Organ Procurement Organizations, and Human Milk Banks using the ISBT 128 Standard.
Hospital departments receiving ISBT 128 labeled products, or performing their own ISBT 128 labeling.
Regulatory bodies responsible for oversight of blood, tissue, and cell facilities.
Government and supra-governmental organizations.
Vendors of equipment, software, or labels using ISBT 128.
Professional bodies in the fields of blood transfusion, cell therapy, and tissue transplantation.

CONSTITUTION

Technical Advisory Groups are made up of four categories of participants:

Representatives: Appointed by countries, professional bodies, or major user groups at the invitation of ICCBBA.
Technical Experts: Appointed by ICCBBA for their particular expertise.
Liaisons: Appointed by Regulatory Authorities, Government, and supra-governmental organizations.
Observers: Vendors, observers from user communities not currently using ISBT 128, and other interested parties, all at the discretion of the TAG Chair.

The first two categories have voting rights in the TAG.

OPERATION

TAG participants tend to be spread over large geographical areas.

Most TAG’s will have one face-to-face meeting each year with conference calls as required. In some cases, face-to-face meetings may not be practical. Online discussion forums are used to take forward technical discussion. Each TAG has webpages on the ICCBBA website where meeting information is posted and discussion forums for the exchange of ideas.

The Chair of each TAG is elected from among the representatives and technical experts.