Setting the scene: Historical overview of challenges and what led to advances in comprehensive care in developed countries,the Canadian experience

The history of the development of comprehensive care for hemophilia and other inherited bleeding disorders in Canada has been long and full of challenges. From limited in‐patient treatment with plasma and cryoprecipitate in a few major centres in the 1950s and 1960s, a network of Hemophilia Treatment Centres (HTCs) offering multi‐disciplinary comprehensive care, home infusion and prophylaxis was established across the country by the late 1970s and early 1980s, only to be shaken by the widespread contamination of factor concentrates with HIV and HCV in the 1970s and 1980s. In recent years the mission of HTCs has expanded to better serve people with von Willebrand disease, rare factor deficiencies and other rare bleeding disorders, and more fully recognize the needs of women with bleeding disorders. In 2020, challenges remain, notably maintaining the resources and expertise in HTCs and gaining access to the latest innovations in treatments.