The AABB is a United States-based professional body

Professional body

A professional association is usually a nonprofit organization seeking to further a particular profession, the interests of individuals engaged in that profession, and the public interest.The roles of these professional associations have been variously defined: "A group of people in a...

 and standards organization

Standards organization

A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization , or standards setting organization is any organization whose primary activities are developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise producing technical standards that are...

 that was founded in 1947 as the American Association of Blood Banks. The organization is now international with members in 80 countries and has taken on a broader scope to include all of transfusion medicine

Transfusion medicine

Transfusion medicine is the branch of medicine that is concerned with the transfusion of blood and blood components. The blood bank is the section of the clinical laboratory where medical technologists process and distribute blood products under the supervision of a medical director, often...

 as well as cellular therapies, specifically ones based on hematopoietic stem cells. In 2005 the organization changed its name to AABB to reflect the changes in scope and operations.

The AABB works closely with the US Food and Drug Administration

Food and Drug Administration

The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

 and provides technical input into the development of blood regulations for the US. While membership is not a regulatory requirement, virtually all major blood banks in the United States are accredited by the AABB. More than 80 percent of hospital transfusion services and similar facilities in the US are members. Accreditation by AABB meets the requirements of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments

Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments

Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 are United States federal regulatory standards that apply to all clinical laboratory testing performed on humans in the United States, except clinical trials and basic research.-CLIA Program:...

 (CLIA) for blood bank, transfusion service, and immunohematology reference laboratory operations.

The organization publishes a newsletter as well as a research journal named Transfusion, which is published through Blackwell Publishing

Blackwell Publishing

Wiley-Blackwell is the international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley's Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publishing, after Wiley took over Blackwell Publishing in...

. Every three years the AABB publishes a Technical Manual; as of 2011 it is in its seventeenth edition. The organization also publishes a variety of other blood banking related materials, including the standards that it uses to accredit

Accreditation

Accreditation is a process in which certification of competency, authority, or credibility is presented.Organizations that issue credentials or certify third parties against official standards are themselves formally accredited by accreditation bodies ; hence they are sometimes known as "accredited...

 members.

Since 1953, the organization has operated a National Blood Exchange to facilitate transfers of blood between blood banks during shortages or when rare blood type

Blood type

A blood type is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells . These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrates, glycoproteins, or glycolipids, depending on the blood group system...

s are required.