A nationwide network to collect data on blood transfusion and recipient outcomes, called the first of its type in the United States, will include four metro Atlanta hospitals at its launch.

Proponents say that analysis of the data will help ensure patient and donor safety, as well as lower health care costs.

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory Crawford Long Hospital, Emory University Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital are among the roughly 35 hospitals and blood centers that have committed to share their blood collection, utilization and transfusion statistics. They will help comprise the U.S. Biovigilance Network, a project about two years in the making.

A nine-hospital pilot program will begin in the fall, with the system launch scheduled for 2009.

"Biovigilance is extremely important to improve patient safety and outcomes," said Christopher Hillyer, director of the Emory Center for Transfusion and Cellular Therapies. "I'm very enthusiastic about [the network]."

The network's creators hope that the network will ultimately include every hospital that performs blood transfusions. That would allow experts to cull data from a majority of the nation's roughly 15 million annual blood donations and 22 million transfusions, which includes units of red blood cells, plasma and platelets.

The deeper data pool would help the network find trends and recommend treatments to reduce disease and mortality rates for patients and donors.

"We have the potential to learn a lot very quickly," said James AuBuchon, chief of pathology at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

The network will be privately and publicly funded. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has helped to provide the platform for initial surveillance efforts.