Conceding that its guidelines for dealing with blood-borne infectious diseases are outdated, Sports Medicine Australia has established a working committee that will meet for the first time next Wednesday in a bid to update its 1997 regulations and Blood Rules, OK educational booklet for sports clubs and organisations.

The news of a planned revision comes after a week in which the AFL's blood rule was in the headlines, after North Melbourne champion Brent Harvey was initially suspended and then granted a tribunal reprieve for his blood-drawing contact to the forehead of Geelong captain Joel Selwood.

Evidence given at the tribunal from North Melbourne – with assistance from Champion Data – that Selwood had gone off the ground 14 times under the blood rule since the start of 2012, twice as many times as any other player in the competition, assisted Harvey's case in beating a rough conduct charge.

Law 22 of the AFL's official rules of the game stipulates that "a player must not remain on the playing surface for so long as they are actively bleeding".

Active bleeding "does not include minor bleeding from a graze or scratch, which has abated and can be readily removed from a player or any part of their uniform".

Former SMA chairman Larkins suggested the AFL's rules also needed to be altered.

"I think it needs to be revised. The current blood rule in the form that it's being applied is really outdated," Larkins said. "It really dates back from the 1990s, when the whole focus about blood in sport arose because of Magic Johnson.

"The blood rule is still valid to have, but the risk of HIV transmission or hepatitis transmission is very, very, very small."

A quote from immunologist John Dwyer in the Blood Rules, OK document estimates the chances of HIV infection during sport are one in 125 million, while estimates of hepatitis B transmission have ranged from between one in 10,000 games to one in 4.25 million games.

Larkins suggested more players could be treated for minor cuts without leaving the playing arena.

"Players who get cut really need to have the cut treated, we don't want players running round smearing blood all over themselves and other people, but where the blood can be controlled out there by an adequately trained first aid trainer or the doctor going out ... I don't think the player needs to leave the field.

"A lot of cases that are sent off the field should be treated on the field, but you've therefore got to have the trainers or the first aid people properly prepared on how to do that on the field."

Larkins conceded, however, that Selwood's heavy bleeding meant he had not been a candidate for on-field treatment.

In the three minutes the All Australian captain was off the ground, North kicked one goal to the Cats' nil, which proved to be the game's final margin.

SMA hopes to have its new policy finalised in about six months for dissemination to sporting bodies and the media.

Larkins is not expecting radical change.

"I don't think it will be much. They will reiterate that it's a safety rule first and an interest-of-the-game rule second. Hopefully they'll provide some statistics to show that the incidence of viral transmission through blood-to-blood contact in a sporting circumstance is an absolutely infinitesimally small risk. And hopefully they will advocate that clubs and sporting organisations need to have a policy that allows players to be treated on the field if it can be done quickly and efficiently and not penalise the player."