SABM at 25
25 Years of Advancing Patient Blood Management
2001-2026
A digital impact report celebrating the people, ideas, evidence, and partnerships that helped move healthcare from managing blood products toward managing patients.
Explore 25 Years of Impact
A Different Way of Thinking
Twenty-five years ago, a group of clinicians believed healthcare needed a better way to think about blood health.
The prevailing conversation often began with transfusion. SABM’s founders envisioned something broader: recognize and treat anemia, minimize avoidable blood loss, optimize coagulation, use transfusion thoughtfully, and make the patient – not the blood product – the center of decision-making.
Founded in 2001, the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management helped give language, structure, education, and a professional community to that emerging patient-centered approach.
In 2021, SABM officially changed its name to the Society for the Advancement of Patient Blood Management, reflecting both the maturation of the field and the organization’s enduring patient-centered purpose. Driven by the vision and leadership of SABM, Patient Blood Management (PBM) became the globally accepted term for a systematic, evidence-based model of care focused on preserving and managing a patient’s own blood to improve clinical outcomes while promoting patient safety and empowerment.
Twenty-five years later, SABM is an international community advancing PBM through education, collaboration, standards, practical tools, advocacy, and multidisciplinary leadership.
Changing the Question
Then:
What blood product does this patient need?
The Shift:
Anemia management
Blood conservation
Coagulation optimization
Patient-centered decision-making
Now:
What does this patient need to optimize blood health?
This shift–from product-centered transfusion decisions to patient-centered blood health–is the clearest expression of SABM’s 25-year impact.
Milestones
25 Years of Impact
One Expanding Circle of Impact
Advance and synthesize evidence that helps clinicians make better decisions about anemia, coagulation, blood conservation, transfusion, and blood health.
Translate evidence into learning through annual meetings, regional programs, webinars, courses, multidisciplinary exchange, and practical educational resources.
Help hospitals and health systems move PBM from concept to operational reality through standards, toolkits, guides, pathways, and performance-improvement resources.
Bring PBM expertise to national and international healthcare organizations and ministries of health and strengthen recognition of PBM as a quality, safety, and value strategy.
Keep the work pointed toward the same destination: safer, more individualized care, better outcomes, informed decisions, and preservation of the patient’s own blood whenever possible.
25 Years, By the Numbers
People Reached Through Global Education and Outreach
Annual Meeting Participants
PBM Certificate Course Graduates
Countries Represented Across the SABM Community
PBM Standards, Guidelines & Resources
Years Advancing Patient Blood Management
Better Patient Care Through Patient Blood Management
25 years of impact. Now, we build the next 25.
From a Society to a Global Community
PBM Has Always Been a Team Sport
SABM brings together physicians (e.g., surgeons, anesthesiologists, internists, pediatricians, hematologists, transfusion medicine specialists), nurses, advanced practice providers, perfusionists, pharmacists, quality leaders, researchers, administrators, patient advocates, and others who share a commitment to better blood health.
The organization’s multidisciplinary character is not incidental to its impact. PBM succeeds when disciplines that traditionally work in separate lanes coordinate around the patient. SABM has provided a forum for that coordination for 25 years.
Members and donors are critical to supporting the mission of SABM – to make PBM the global standard of care.
Every gift, large or small, helps SABM support PBM education and implementation to improve patient outcomes.
The People Who Moved the Field Forward
Progress has always had people behind it. SABM’s award history offers a natural way to recognize pioneers, clinicians, scientists, educators, nurses, advocates, and leaders who shaped the discipline.
| Year | Recipient | Award |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Denton Cooley, MD | President’s Award |
| 2008 | James Isbister, MD | President’s Award |
| 2012 | Kathleen Sazama, MD | Kathleen J. Sazama Award |
| 2017 | Sherri Ozawa, RN | Kathleen J. Sazama Award |
| 2019 | Aryeh Shander, MD | President’s Award |
| 2021 | Prof. Axel Hofmann, ME | President’s Award |
| 2022 | Becky Rock, RN | Kathleen J. Sazama Award |
| 2023 | Patricia Ford, MD | Kathleen J. Sazama Award |
| 2025 | Guilherme Rabello, MBA | Volunteer Leadership Award |
An Idea Becomes a Standard
A field becomes durable when good ideas can be implemented consistently.
SABM’s contribution has included not only education and advocacy, but practical infrastructure for implementation. Its Administrative and Clinical Standards for Patient Blood Management Programs are designed to span hospital PBM activities, improve safety and outcomes, accelerate adoption of evidence-based practice, and bring proven management strategies to the bedside.
Emerging Idea
Scientific Evidence
Multidisciplinary Community
Hospital PBM Programs
Standards + Guidance
International Engagement
Recognized Specialty + Field
Blood Health Future
Advancing PBM Beyond SABM
For 25 years, SABM has helped move patient blood management from an emerging concept toward an established, multidisciplinary model of patient care. Its influence can be seen in tangible changes across healthcare: SABM has developed clinical and administrative standards used to guide PBM programs; contributed to major multisociety clinical practice guidelines; partnered with Choosing Wisely to address unnecessary transfusion and other low-value practices; created formal PBM education and implementation resources for clinicians and health systems; and helped bring patient blood management into conversations about quality, safety, and healthcare value.
Perhaps one of the clearest examples of SABM’s influence came in 2026, when the American Nurses Association formally recognized Patient Blood Management nursing as a nursing specialty following years of work by SABM leaders and volunteers. PBM now has a defined nursing scope of practice, standards, and competencies—helping establish a professional identity and career pathway that did not previously exist.
SABM has also extended its influence through collaboration with other professional societies, contributing PBM expertise to multidisciplinary clinical guidelines and consensus statements in areas such as cardiac surgery, anemia management, bleeding, coagulation, and transfusion. At the same time, SABM’s educational programs, standards, toolkits, patient resources, and annual scientific meeting have helped clinicians and institutions translate the evidence for PBM into everyday practice.
The result is an influence that extends well beyond SABM’s membership. SABM has helped build the clinical, educational, and professional infrastructure of PBM—and, as the field enters its next era, is positioned to help define what comes next.
2026:
A Milestone, Not a Finish Line
Years Advancing SABM was founded
Annual Meeting
September 17-19 / Atlanta, Georgia
PBM recognized as a health priority by the World Health Organization
PBM recognized as official nursing specialty
PBM expands globally
This anniversary year we honor the pioneers of PBM and envision what comes next.
The Next 25 Years
2001 began with a question: could healthcare improve outcomes by thinking differently about blood?
Twenty-five years of science, education, collaboration, implementation, and clinical practice have moved the field closer to an answer.
But the work is not finished. Anemia and iron deficiency remain widespread. Avoidable blood loss persists. PBM implementation remains uneven across institutions and geographies. New evidence, technologies, data capabilities, and models of care continue to expand what is possible.
The next chapter is about moving from adoption to normalization – making comprehensive Patient Blood Management and Blood Health part of how health systems routinely think about quality, safety, outcomes, and value.
The Question for 2051
What would healthcare look like if comprehensive Patient Blood Management—and the pursuit of optimal Blood Health—became a global standard of care?
For SABM, that is not simply a question about the future. It is a vision for it.
How Can You Help?
Members and donors are critical to supporting the mission of SABM – to make PBM the global standard of care.
Every donation makes an impact. This includes supporting and expanding educational offerings, research and travel grants for SABM members and medical trainees, public health campaigns, and advocacy efforts. Donors are critical to ensure that SABM meets both present needs and future challenges. All donations are tax-deductible.
Every gift, large or small, helps SABM support PBM education and implementation to improve patient outcomes.