The Italian National Blood Centre (CNS), as provided for under Law No. 219 of 21st October 2005 (Art. 12, paragraph 4, letter N), “may carry out, if requested, consultancy and support activities for the purposes of planning and organising transfusion activities at regional level”.
Technical opinions on transfusion medicine may concern, for example:
- appropriateness of management/organisational solutions
- transfusion appropriateness within treatment protocols
- appropriateness of regulatory interpretation and application
- appropriateness of blood and blood component donor selection protocols for clinical suitability
- appropriateness of the use of medical devices for human applications
- implementation of transfusion risk prevention and containment measures in emerging epidemiological situations
- clinical, and quality and safety aspects of blood components and plasma-derived medicinal products
Method of sending requests
Who can apply
- Components of the institutional network (Ministry of Health, Regional Coordinating Structures for Transfusion Activities*, National Associations/Federations of Blood and Blood Donors, other governmental bodies such as Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, National Agency for Regional Health Services – AGENAS);
- Individual professionals or professional groups, through their respective Scientific Societies;
- Medical device/diagnostic companies**;
- Patient associations;
- Other subjects.
* Individual Blood Transfusion Facilities may submit requests only through the Regional Coordinating Structures for their affiliated blood transfusion activities.
** With reference to Commissioner’s Order No. 44/2015 dated 03/30/2015 issued by the Higher Institute of Health, the issuance of technical opinions for medical device/diagnostic companies is subject to payment for services based on defined fees (Code 47.9). More details are available at the following link.
How to apply
The request for opinion can be sent to the CNS General Secretariat through the following channels:
- electronic mail, to the address segreteriagenerale.cns@iss.it
- PEC, to the address cns@pec.iss.it
- ordinary mail, to the address Via Giano della Bella 27 – 00162 Roma
Time and manner of issuing the opinion
The Cns issues technical opinions in accordance with the following timeline, based on the level of urgency established by the Center’s management:
- 15 working days from the date of receipt of the request or, in prescribed cases, from the date of payment for the service (urgent request)
- 30 working days from the date of receipt of the request or, in prescribed cases, from the date of payment for the service (non-urgent request)
The means of transmission of the opinion will be the same as that used by the applicant to send the request (E-mail, PEC or regular mail).