Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA)

Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) is a formalized specialist method for calculating individual,
environmental, employee and public risk levels for comparison with regulatory risk criteria.

Elements of QRA:

 Hazard Identification
 Hazard Characterization
 Exposure Assessment
 Risk Characterization

Hazard Identification:

 Sometimes simple

What is the risk of transfusion-transmitted disease of a specific emerging arbovirus with a

significant asymptomatic post infection period?

 Sometimes not simple

Hazard Characterization:

 Also called Dose-Response

 Difficult to get information
 How many Malaria will cause disease in a blood recipient?
 What does the dose-response curve look like?

Exposure Assessment:

 Blood is generally not pooled, but components sometimes are

 Amounts from billing information
 Variable amounts of blood products received
 Using individual data to build a public health model

Risk Characterization:

 The integration of Hazard Characterization and Exposure Assessment

 Generally carries a lot of information, but must be comprehensible
 It’s challenging.