▪ Prevent morbidity and mortality due to transfusion reactions. The cost to screen for antigen-negative donors is offset by the cost to investigate and treat a patient with a transfusion reaction.

▪ Reduce the need to withhold RBC components to alloimmunized patients, especially those with multiple alloantibodies where providing antigen-negative blood has been a challenge. This could ameliorate the clinical risks of withholding blood transfusion.

▪ Prevent immunization and transfusion reactions by matching antigen profiles in chronically transfused patients who are immune responders, especially those with sickle cell disease.

▪ Provide RBC components lacking antigens for which there is no antibody for screening purposes.

▪ Match, based on DNA testing, unusual Rh phenotypes especially in African Americans.

▪ Match for Jk^a and Jk^b if a patient has been exposed to either antigen, to prevent transfusion reactions and deaths due to anti-Jk^a or anti-Jk^b. Reports by the FDA in the USA and the Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) study in the UK have revealed that a handful of patients die annually after being transfused with antigen-positive blood.²⁷ 

▪ Transfuse a patient with an alloantibody to a high-prevalence antigen with antigen-matched RBC components, and thereby reduce the need for maintaining a large library of rare reagents.

▪ For patients with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA), reduce need for labor-intensive procedures that are required to detect underlying clinically significant antibodies each time the patient requires blood transfusion.

▪ Transfuse RBC components matched for phenotypes such as weak D to conserve true D-negative blood for true D-negative patients.