Blood far forward: A cross-sectional analysis of prehospital transfusion practices in the Canadian Armed Forces
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) operate in environments that challenge patient care, especially trauma. Military personnel often find themselves in remote settings without conventional healthcare facilities. Treating traumatic injuries, particularly hemorrhagic shock, often necessitates prehospital blood transfusion. This study aims to present an overview of the current CAF prehospital transfusion practices. Furthermore, the study compared current and developing protocols against expert-recommended guidelines. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey design was employed to describe and compare CAF prehospital blood transfusion practices and protocols against expert recommendations. Topics included protocols, equipment, and procedures. An online survey targeted medical leadership and providers within CAF, with data collected from August 15 to December 15, 2023. Results were summarized descriptively. This study received approval from the Unity Health Toronto Research Ethics Board (REB 23-087). RESULTS: Units and teams with prehospital blood transfusion capabilities were contacted, achieving a 100 % response rate. Within CAF, Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), Mobile Surgical Resuscitation Team (MSRT), and Canadian Medical Emergency Response Team (CMERT) possess these capabilities, established between 2013 and 2018. These programs are crucial for military operations. CAF has access to standard blood components, cold Leuko-Reduced Whole Blood (LrWB), and factor concentrates from Canadian Blood Services (CBS), available for both domestic and international missions given adequate planning and favorable conditions. Key findings indicate high adherence to recommended practices, some variability in the transfusion process, and potential benefits of standardizing prehospital transfusion practices. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided insights into CAF's implementation of prehospital transfusion practices, highlighting high adherence to national expert recommendations and the importance of structured protocols in military prehospital trauma management. IMPLICATIONS OF KEY FINDINGS: CAF's approach and adoption of prehospital transfusion protocols lay a strong foundation for managing trauma patients in remote settings and for expanding prehospital transfusion capabilities across CFHS deployed assets. Further research is needed to advance military trauma care by adapting prehospital blood transfusion to dynamic tactical landscapes and evolving technologies.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.006 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".