TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- A $1 million upgrade in frozen-blood processing and thawing here is expected to help level the inventory in the "feast-or-famine" business of blood collection in the Department of Defense.

The Armed Services Whole Blood Processing Lab-West, a tenant unit at Travis, is one of two tri-service storage and distribution centers for liquid and frozen blood in the DOD. It is a major artery in both the nation's and military's blood supplies, officials said.

The unit serves the Pacific and Southern Commands and maintains a blood inventory for disaster contingencies. It also serves also as a backup to its counterpart in the east at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J.

"Travis's (lab) is one of the first in the medical industry to come on line with this new frozen blood-processing technology," said Maj. Sarah Futterman, the lab’s director.

The program has been in research phases for the last five years and received Food and Drug Administration approval about 18 months ago, she said.

"Liquid and frozen blood have different life spans," said Lt. Col. Peter Pelletier, medical director of the center. "Liquid blood has a lifespan of 42 days. After this period, if unused, it is considered nonviable and must be destroyed. Frozen blood, however, kept at temperatures around minus 80 degrees Celsius, can last up to 10 years until thawed."

"Traditional technology used to freeze and thaw blood allowed the blood to only be good for 24 hours once it was thawed and washed," Futterman said. "The new frozen blood-thawing process is a closed system, allowing thawed and prepared frozen blood to last for up to two weeks upon thawing. The program is designed to allow a better stockpile of blood to be available during peacetime and wartime.”

The lab received 10 Haemonetics machines to upgrade the processing of frozen blood, she said.

The main goal of this million-dollar upgrade is to help stabilize blood supplies, Futterman said. Liquid and frozen blood are fairly equivalent in therapeutic value, so these state-of-the-art closed-system machines will help considerably.

The summer and winter holidays are the hardest times of the year to recruit volunteer donors.

"We're very dependent upon the donors to come in and donate blood, and the ebbs and flows hit us pretty hard sometimes," Futterman said. "We are in desperate need during these times of year in particular for volunteers to come in and donate blood."

Blood is collected by the armed services' blood donor centers from DOD-affiliated volunteers, some who donate every 56 days. All of the blood donated by the military blood-donor centers goes directly toward servicemembers and their families worldwide, she said.

"This is fantastic new technology we're extremely excited to have available," said Futterman. "This new system of processing frozen blood will help stabilize our inventory of blood and will likely come with a paradigm shift with the increased use of frozen blood in the field and at the home front. (This will increase) our mission readiness and ability to react to emergency situations more effectively." (Courtesy of Air Mobility Command News Service)