DART–A Voluntary System of Hemovigilance in Denmark

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Abstract
SUMMARy: Denmark has a long tradition of collecting information concerning the country's activities, and this includes the collation of data concerning transfusion medicine. Data concerning nearly all parts of the transfusion chain, from the giving of blood through to the production of blood components and to the registration of transfusion complications, has been collected for years. Some data is provided on a voluntary and confidential basis by non‐official bodies, whereas official bodies as a legal obligation provide other data. Up to this day, a common national hemovigilance system has not been established.The Danish Registration of Transfusion Risks (DART) was initiated in 1998.The inspiration to initiate a registration of risks in connection with blood transfusion came from the results published by SHOT and from France. The British system SHOT was focused on, because the idea of a voluntary and confidential system was more suited to the Danish mentality, and was therefore more likely to be generally accepted. The DART system was originally organized as a copy of SHOT with the intention of making it possible to compare results from the two systems.During the first four years DART received 114 reports (91 about a severe risk). Half of the severe events concerned the transfusion of an incorrect blood component, and the other half were concerned immunological complications. Only 5% of the reported events concerned transfusion transmitted infections. The results obtained by DART have given rise to initiatives and recommendations aimed at reducing the transfusion risk.

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