Appointments to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service - 23 May 2023

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has reappointed the following members to the Board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.

Dr Elizabeth Kenny works as a Gastroenterologist in Cork University Hospital and Mater Private Cork. She qualified in UCC in 1984 and carried out a postgraduate MD in University College Cork. Her main areas of research include viral hepatitis, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and coeliac disease. She was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Medicine and APC UCC. She peer reviews articles for medical journals including Hepatology and the Journal of Hepatology on a regular basis. She has over 70 publications in national and international journals, including NEJM and is a contributor to a number of book chapters. She continues research on an ongoing basis with Professor Fergus Shanahan and Professor Subrata Ghosh with Science Foundation of Ireland funding through APC on the human microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease/irritable bowel syndrome. Her research in Hepatitis C is a collaboration with national and international experts. From her seminal research in hepatitis C in Ireland Dr Kenny progressed to be the coordinator of the Irish Hepatology Group and was instrumental in the development and organisation of the six Hepatology Units in Ireland. Dr Kenny acted as Chair of the Consultative Council which advised the Minister of Health on all aspects of hepatitis C over a 9-year period (2003 – 2012). She took up her appointment to the Board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) in 2014 and was appointed Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee of the IBTS in 2014. In this role she has overseen the progressive revisions of the IBTS’s blood donor policies with MSM and the lifting of the previous restrictions related to COVID-19. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Kenny was active in ensuring the IBTS’s leading role in conjunction with International and Irish Haematologists in on-going clinical research.

This appointment is from 21 May 2023 until 20 May 2024.

Dr Satu Pastila is Director of Blood Donation at the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service. She is a graduate of the University of Oulu, University of Helsinki, University of Copenhagen, with an Executive Masters of Business Administration from Aalto University, Finland. Her fields of expertise include clinical infectious diseases, infectious diseases epidemiology, tropical medicine; internal medicine; blood donor selection, infection risks, residual risks, emerging infections in relation to blood banking and operations management, strategic management, and leadership Before working in the FRC Blood Service, she worked for several years as a Consultant in Infectious Diseases, specialising in Tropical Medicine at the University of Copenhagen. In 2000, she spent four months in Kosovo, as an ICRC delegate and as Hospital Director in a Regional Hospital. In the FRC Blood Service from 2003 until 2008, she was in charge of blood donor selection, blood directive implementation into practise, infection risks and residual risks related to blood components. In 2008, Dr Pastila was appointed the Director of Blood Donation. She is a member of the FRC BS Executive Board since October 2011. In her current role as Director of the FRC Blood Service she participated in developing and setting up a novel vein-to-vein IT system for blood banking, comprised of CRM and AX software with CRM integrations to digital donor services, LIMS and operational equipment. Her responsibility as Product Owner was the blood donation and donor register-related section (CRM). The IT system was successfully deployed on 4 May 2020.

This appointment is from 7 June 2023 until 6 June 2025.