IoM issues Cord Blood report

At 4PM EDT, the Institute of Medicine releases the report from the Committee on Establishing a National Cord Blood Stem Cell Bank Program.  Extremely abbreviated summary:

• The primary goal of the national program is to maximize patient access in the most efficient, cost-effective, and ethical manner possible.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) should establish a new National Cord Blood Policy Board to set rules for the donation, collection, and use of this resource.
• The new National Cord Blood Policy Board should be established at the level of the DHHS Secretary to ensure that it is distanced from other HHS programs (such as NMDP).
• The HHS dept HRSA should solicit proposals for a new Cord Blood Coordinating Center to manage daily operations of cord blood banking and allocation nationwide.
• No current organization has all the necessary capabilities to serve as the Cord Blood Coordinating Center (this implicitly means neither NMDP nor NYBC).
• In particular, techniques of HLA typing and measures of quality control both need to be standardized.
• Cord blood donors must give fully informed consent prior to delivery.
• The FDA should move "promptly" to license cord blood.
• The majority of funding available for the national cord blood bank program should be targeted to expanding the inventories of participating banks.
• According to an economic analysis conducted for the study, the point at which the costs of banking exceed the benefits for the patient population is 200,000 units.

Links to the full report (open PDF-file in a new window):
Title Page
Cast and Contents
Executive Summary
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. HPC Transplantation
Chapter 3. Research on HPC Uses
Chapter 4. Banks and Banking
Chapter 5. Ethical and Legal Issues
Chapter 6. National Inventory
Chapter 7. Proposed National Structure