This section provides background about the association, including information about its mission and how to get in touch with the WMDA.

Mission

The World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) fosters international collaboration to facilitate the exchange of high quality hematopoietic stem cells for clinical transplantation worldwide and to promote the interests of donors.

Vision

The WMDA works towards the goal that high-quality and secure haematopoietic stem cell products are available for all patients worldwide while maintaining the health and welfare of the stem cell donors.

Core Values

WMDA cares for donors who save patients' lives:

• Donor Safety
• Education
• Globalization
• Standards
• Accreditation

Organisation Overview

The WMDA is a global association. Twice a year the WMDA members meet, usually in conjunction with other international meetings. The network represents 71 donor registries, 140 cord blood banks, 350 donor centres, and 1,259 transplant hospitals from 48 different countries. You can learn more about the WMDA in the brochure: Share Life.

Membership

For more information on any of the following membership categories or to apply for membership, visit the join WMDA section.

Standards Setting

The WMDA has established an accreditation programme for haematopoietic stem cell donor registries to promote the international exchange of high-quality stem cell products while protecting the donor's anonymity, health and well-being. For more information, visit the Standards and Accreditation section.

Education

"Share knowledge and share expertise", is a key message of the WMDA. The WMDA meetings are a combination of workshops (where guidelines are developed) and training (where guidelines are put into practice). An example is the WMDA Education Day. The Education Day is a forum for the presentation of new scientific, operational information on managing a donor registry, donor management and information technology in a registry. 

The WMDA also hosts an international donor registry conference every other year in which new advances in the field of transplantation are shared with the clinical and scientific community.

Publications

The WMDA working groups publishes their recommendations in scientific journals. In 2010 the WMDA published a serie of papers in the journal Bone Marrow Transplantation to show the scope of the WMDA.

• WMDA: 20 years of international collaboration
• WMDA: trends in the international use of donors
• Standards, regulations and accreditation
• Donor safety
• Cord blood banking - the registry aspects
• Information technology and the role of the WMDA
• Future perspectives

Communication

The WMDA delivers the most up-to-date information for stem cell donor registries. 

• www.worldmarrow.org: The WMDA's website contains facts about donating and receiving stem cells from unrelated donors, listing of meetings, access to newsletters, activities of the WMDA Working Groups and Committees.
• Twice a year the WMDA sends out a newsletter to keep the members informed of the recent WMDA meeting.
• The WMDA Activities Report contains information related to the work done by the WMDA Working Groups and the Committees and an overview of the approved policy statements and recommendations.

Contact Us

The WMDA Office is located in the Netherlands.

World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA)

Plesmanlaan 1b, 6th floor

2333 BZ Leiden

The Netherlands

Phone: +31 71 568 5366 

Fax: +31 71 521 0457

E-mail: wmda@europdonor.nl