A Novel State Funded Program to Increase Cord Blood Collections for Public Banking

The Umbilical Cord Blood Collection Program (UCBCP), administered by UC Davis Health System, is a new statewide public program designed to capture the genetic diversity of Californians through collection of cord blood units (CBUs) for unrelated transplantation. This program is funded with revenue from California state birth certificate fees. The vision for the implementation of the mission by UCBCP is to expand access to cord blood stem cells by targeting current inventory deficiencies to provide greater probabilities that people of any race or ethnicity will find an appropriately matched CBU in the National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI). In support of these goals, the UCBCP plans to promote targeted education programs for health professionals and to utilize best practices for cord blood collections. Through this process UCBCP will facilitate the provision of high quality CBUs for transplantation, as well as promote research and development of effective treatments utilizing cord blood stem cells by making the CBUs collected that do not meet the criteria for banking available to researchers.

Much progress has been made toward developing a sustainable cord blood collection program for the state over the first year. The UCBCP leadership team has been developed and we have identified cord blood banks through an RFP bidding process that will be partnered with hospitals in various parts of the state. The UCBCP is in varying stages of contract negotiations with three of the public banks who responded to the RFP. To date negotiations are in place for California collections in Southern California to occur at five Scripps hospitals, funded in part by the UCBCP; and by collections set to begin at 13 Kaiser Hospitals, also with support from the UCBCP. In the Central Valley, a collection site is being developed in Fresno, at the Community Regional Medical Center. In the Bay area the UCBCP is in negotiations with several hospitals, including California Pacific Medical Center and Alta Bates. In the Sacramento area, the UCBCP has commitments from 2 hospitals and are seeking the same from two additional birthing centers. At UCDHS, we have received IRB approval for the program, and have now initiated cord blood collections for purposes of collector training and process validation.