Wednesday, November 22, 2006

MedGadget makes blood banking / traditional banking comparison...

Here's some interesting analogy in action... The folks at MedGadget discuss umbilical cord blood banking in an article called "Tied in Knots over Umbilical Cord Blood Bank."

The post addresses concerns that Indian blood banks may not be sufficiently regulated with respect to eligible purchasers of cord blood. That should definitely be a subject of concern for anyone with an affiliation of any sort to the cord blood banking industry.

The article also draws an interesting series of parallels between traditional "money banks" and "cord blood banks." The write:


"Cord Blood Banks are a lot like real ones:

  • The more people participate, the better the value for everyone.

  • It's free to make a deposit, but withdrawals come with all kinds of fees.

  • US banks are pretty well regulated. The rest of the world has its colorful outliers.
  • People fear that India, which is coming into the cord banking world now with LifeCell, may not be too stringent on who gets to buy their blood -- and people may be dying to donate."

    You can read MedGadget's piece, in its entirety, here.