The Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA) Dubai Cord Blood and Research Centre (DCRC) has introduced a new electronic registration method to register to store cord blood stem cells.

Pregnant women will now be able to register online to store their cord blood stem cells for up to 30 years from the comfort of their homes.

After providing the requested information and meeting the needed criteria, the centre will deliver the cord blood stem cells collection kit to the pregnant women.

This new method was launched to ease the registration process for pregnant women, so they don’t have to physically visit the centre to register, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Fatma Alhashimi, Senior Clinical Scientist and Head of Donor Recruitment unit at DCRC said that this service will save pregnant women time and effort of physically  visiting the centre to register especially at this time, when pregnant women are one of the most prone segments of developing serious symptoms due to the coronavirus.

“To apply to store their cord blood stem cells, all what expecting mothers have to do is send an email with their contact details to DCRC on DCRC@dha.gov.ae. A concerned team from the centre will then send the expected mothers all the requested documents. If they were found to be eligible after meeting all the criteria, they will be able to continue the registration to preserve their cord blood stem cells for up to 30 years,” Dr Alhashimi said.

She added that after successfully registering, the centre will deliver the cord blood collection kit, so the expecting mother can take it with her when she goes to deliver in private hospitals.  The medical team will then use it during delivery to collect the cord blood stem cells. If the expecting mother is delivering in a government hospital, the cord blood collection kits are available in Dubai and Latifa Hospitals.

She highlighted the continuous efforts by doctors and nurses at the hospitals to raise awareness among expecting mothers about the importance of storing their cord blood stems cells as they can cure more than 80 blood diseases including leukaemia, thalassemia, autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders and sickle cell diseases.

Dr Alhashimi added that the centre conducted virtual training sessions for doctors and nurses at DHA hospitals on the general information about cord blood and the ideal methods of collecting cord blood stem cells using a dummy, where doctors and nurses can see it being performed first-hand and ask questions. After completing the course, they are then tested via a phone call to make sure that they are prepared to perform the collection.

She added that the centre has so far virtually trained 37 medical and nursing cadres in Hatta Hospital and has received successfully collected cord blood stem cells, which were then stored at the centre based on the best international standards.

Dr Alhashimi said that DCRC has sent many cord blood units to international centres and have treated 20 cases who were suffering from diseases like leukaemia, thalassemia, autoimmune diseases and more, using stem cells stored at the centre, She pointed out that the centre has stored more than 7,000 cord blood stem cells since its established in 2006.