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An Android Application for Volunteer Blood Donors

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Sultan N. Turhan at Galatasaray Üniversitesi
Sultan N. Turhan
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Abstract

There is an expectation that the blood will always be there when it is really needed. Blood donor volunteers constitute the main supply source in an effective blood supply chain management. They feed blood stocks through their donation. In an emergency situation, if the stocks are insufficient, the only source of blood supply will be the people who come to the health center and donate the blood on a voluntary basis. It is certain that time is a very important component in such situation. For this reason, the health care center should call the nearest available donor in order to ensure to get the service as quickly as possible. A smart phone application is developed to facilitate the identification of the nearest available blood donor volunteer and the communication with him/her in the emergency situations where the blood can’t be supplied through the blood banks’ stocks. In this paper this application will be presented.
Available via license: CC BY-NC 4.0
Content may be subject to copyright.
Jan Zizka et al. (Eds) : CCSEIT, MoWiN, IT, AIAP, ICBB - 2015
pp. 23–30, 2015. © CS & IT-CSCP 2015 DOI : 10.5121/csit.2015.51103
A
N
A
NDROID
A
PPLICATION
F
OR
V
OLUNTEER
B
LOOD
D
ONORS
Sultan Turhan
Department of Computer Engineering,
GalatasarayUniversity, İstanbul, TURKEY
sturhan@gsu.edu.tr
A
BSTRACT
There is an expectation that the blood will always be there when it is really needed. Blood
donor volunteers constitute the main supply source in an effective blood supply chain
management. They feed blood stocks through their donation. In an emergency situation, if the
stocks are insufficient, the only source of blood supply will be the people who come to the health
center and donate the blood on a voluntary basis. It is certain that time is a very important
component in such situation. For this reason, the health care center should call the nearest
available donor in order to ensure to get the service as quickly as possible. A smart phone
application is developed to facilitate the identification of the nearest available blood donor
volunteer and the communication with him/her in the emergency situations where the blood
can’t be supplied through the blood banks’ stocks. In this paper this application will be
presented.
K
EYWORDS
Smart phone application, Blood donation information system, optimization, distance
calculation, java development platforms
1.
I
NTRODUCTION
Despite all the advances in medicine and technology, an alternative medical way to substitute
blood, blood components or blood-derived products have not been found yet [2]. Blood can only
be supplied by living donors. Blood transfusion has been responsible for saving millions of lives
each year around the world. Yet the quantity and quality of blood pool available for transfusion is
still a major concern across the globe, especially in the developing countries [3]
According to Turkish Red Crescent Society (TürkKızılayı)[13], the estimated blood requirement
for Turkey is about 2.100.000 unit per year and the organization can fulfill 85% of this
requirement thanks to volunteer blood donors. There are three types of blood donors in Turkey:
a) voluntary donors, b) replacement donors, and c) professional donors [3]. Most donations are as
a result of replacement donations provided by the relatives of patients. In case of operation or
treatment, health care center employees asked to patient’s relatives to donate blood even they
don’t have the same blood group. Professional donors are those who donate blood in exchange for
money. Unfortunately these two types of blood donors don’t help maintaining a reliable stock of
blood. Moreover, they do not provide rare blood groups. These points indicate the need and
importance of voluntary blood donations [6]. Voluntary donors are non-remunerated donors and
donate blood voluntarily without any inducements such as money or any other substitute of
24 Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT)
money [10]. Such donations are providing adequate round the clock availability during
emergency situations and they are the source of safe blood also. The sustainability of a safe and
adequate blood supply is still provided by volunteer blood donors [9].
Almost all over the world, blood recruitment services are conducted in a systematic way.
Compared to worldwide applications, Turkey has not been reached yet to a desired level. There
are 297 blood centers across Turkey [10]. They are mostly in big cities like İstanbul, Ankara and
İzmir. In little cities and provinces, Turkish Red Crescent Society manages the blood recruitment.
Unfortunately there isn’t any coordination between all these institutions and the blood recruitment
and supply management keep still their unsteadiness between shortage and wastage. On the other
hand, in an emergency situation or a chronic disease case, when the blood stocks are insufficient
to fulfill the requirement, the blood is supplied via public announcement through the traditional or
social media, which may not always result in a successful way [12].
In order to maintain continuously blood recruitment, blood banks should implement different
campaign for encouraging people to become a registered volunteer donor [5]. Also, they have to
facilitate blood donation process with help of new technology in order to increase the volunteer
donors’ willingness and accessibility [3]. Market research experts define the different generations
found in the blood donor population. The common characteristic of a large part of this population
is to be digital natives whose smart phones are ubiquitous.
Rh++ [1] is an integrated information system whose aim is to manage the blood donation and
blood supply chain. The proposed system is used by the patients and/or relatives of the patients to
notify their blood requirements and by the living donors to be aware of these requirements. When
the blood request is defined into the system, the system checks the stock of the blood banks in the
neighborhood. In this way, the system can declare quickly weather the blood needed can be
supplied or not. If the blood needed cannot be supplied from the neighborhood blood banks, the
system send request to living donors of the same region, via the mobile application installed in
donors’ smart phones and interprets the response coming from the donors. If there is any
affirmative answer from the living donors, the system informs the related health care provider.
Rh++ seeks to provide services to different kind of user such as healthcare institutions, blood
banks, volunteer donors, patients or their relatives. Therefore, its infrastructure is designed as
flexible as possible, in order to ensure data exchange easily between the organizations, each of
them has different infrastructure architecture. For this reason, Service Oriented Architecture
principles [13] are adopted directly in infrastructure architecture as well as process designs. The
system consists of a backbone which provides data exchanges between different kind of
information systems, a web portal and mobile phone’s applications which ensure the user
interaction.
2.
S
MART
P
HONES’
A
PPLICATION
F
OR
V
OLUNTEER
D
ONORS
2.1. Operating System
We chose to use the Android software stack produced by Google. Android is an open source
framework designed for mobile devices that packages an operating system, middleware, and key
applications [15]. The Android SDK provides libraries needed to interface with the hardware and
make/deploy an Android application [16]. Applications are written in Java. Android uses a
SQLite database to store persistent data. Unlike dedicated systems, our software is intended to
integrate with the phone’s existing applications. Our application must share resources with the
other application. To make for a pleasant integration, the application runs as inconspicuously as
possible while using limited resources. We launch a background service that constantly listens to
the web services. Only when the algorithm described in the following section receive a request,
Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT)
will the service wake up and in
terrupt the user. By only waking up the activity when a request is
defined, we allow applications to run on top of our application while we minimize our memory
consumption and user interaction.
2.2. General Description
The application is developed for the smart phones using Android operating system. The main
duty of the application is to notify regularly the donor’s location to Rh++. The process of being a
registered donor of Rh++ consists of following tasks: Volunteer
to be registered as donor into the system. Rh++ is a smart information system, and all users’
interventions are minimized. Nevertheless, following the registration, volunteer is called by blood
recruitment center’s staff a
nd required to pass the routine health checks. If his/her health
condition is suitable to be a donor, blood center gives the username and password to the volunteer
and s/he downloads the application into his/her smart phones. The following picture illustra
login screen of the Android application.
Figure 1.Login Screen of Mobile Application
Once donor connects to the system, the application downloaded into his/her smarts phone starts to
send his/her location information to the main system. Two of the common problems in mobile
phones’ applications are the optimization of battery usage and mobi
control these two usages, the update frequency of volunteer donor’s location information is let
under the control of the user. Donor may decrease the update frequency if s/he is idle in a specific
location (work, home, theater
etc.) or increase it, if s/he is on the move. Also, volunteer donor
may update his/her own location information using “Update My Location Now” button on the
above mentioned screen whenever s/he wants. Figure 2 illustrates the “Update Frequency”
screen.
Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT)
consumption and user interaction.
registered donor of Rh++ consists of following tasks: Volunteer
uses Rh++’s web portal interface
login screen of the Android application.
Figure 1.Login Screen of Mobile Application
phones’ applications are the optimization of battery usage and mobi
le data exchange. In order to
25
terrupt the user. By only waking up the activity when a request is
defined, we allow applications to run on top of our application while we minimize our memory
The application is developed for the smart phones using Android operating system. The main
duty of the application is to notify regularly the donor’s location to Rh++. The process of being a
uses Rh++’s web portal interface
to be registered as donor into the system. Rh++ is a smart information system, and all users’
interventions are minimized. Nevertheless, following the registration, volunteer is called by blood
nd required to pass the routine health checks. If his/her health
condition is suitable to be a donor, blood center gives the username and password to the volunteer
and s/he downloads the application into his/her smart phones. The following picture illustra
tes the
Once donor connects to the system, the application downloaded into his/her smarts phone starts to
send his/her location information to the main system. Two of the common problems in mobile
le data exchange. In order to
control these two usages, the update frequency of volunteer donor’s location information is let
under the control of the user. Donor may decrease the update frequency if s/he is idle in a specific
etc.) or increase it, if s/he is on the move. Also, volunteer donor
may update his/her own location information using “Update My Location Now” button on the
above mentioned screen whenever s/he wants. Figure 2 illustrates the “Update Frequency”
26
Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT)
Figure 2.
When a blood request comes to the system and if it cannot be supplied from the stocks, the
system checks the donors’ location, determines the nearest ones and sends them the alerts. Donors
receive this alert and
respond affirmatively or negatively via their application. Thanks to this
rapid communication, the system may first dedicate if the blood can be supplied or not, and
secondly calculate the acquisition time of the necessary blood. When the volunteer donor
affirmatively, the requester health center’s information is sent to donor’s smart phones
2.3. Technical Details
The application has been initially developed on Android Studio using ANT. Application has two
major tasks: a) sending periodically don
from Rh++. To determine the donor’s latitude and longitude values, we included maps feature to
our applications and we chose to implement Google’s maps services. Figure 3 illustrates the map
screen.
Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT)
Figure 2.
Update Frequency Period Screen
major tasks: a) sending periodically don
or’s location information to Rh++ and b) receiving alerts
Figure 3. Map Screen
When a blood request comes to the system and if it cannot be supplied from the stocks, the
system checks the donors’ location, determines the nearest ones and sends them the alerts. Donors
respond affirmatively or negatively via their application. Thanks to this
rapid communication, the system may first dedicate if the blood can be supplied or not, and
secondly calculate the acquisition time of the necessary blood. When the volunteer donor
answers
affirmatively, the requester health center’s information is sent to donor’s smart phones
The application has been initially developed on Android Studio using ANT. Application has two
or’s location information to Rh++ and b) receiving alerts
from Rh++. To determine the donor’s latitude and longitude values, we included maps feature to
our applications and we chose to implement Google’s maps services. Figure 3 illustrates the map
Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT) 27
To find the nearest available donor to the requester health center, the system calculates the
distance between the requester health center and the donor. It is Euclidian distance calculation.
The data exchange between the application and the main system is provided by the web services.
Two web services are generated for this operation:
• public String getNearestDonorsToHospital (intuserID, inthospitalID, int radius,
intcheckedInLastNHours, String bloodGroup, String bloodType):
This web service is
responsible to determine the nearest donors to the requester healthcare center. In order to
make this calculation, the web service gets the healthcare center location’s information,
requested blood information and the radius value determined by the user. With all this
input, the web service determine the name, surname and location information of the donors
who are suitable, close to the requester healthcare center andupdated his/her location at
most checkedInLastNHours time period ago.
• public StringgetNearestDonors (intuserID, double latitude, double longitude, int
radius, intcheckedInLastNHours, String bloodGroup, String bloodRH):
This web
service realize the same operation as the above one. The only difference between them is
that in this web service the central point is not a registered healthcare center but it is a
specific point of which the longitude and latitude value are defined by the users.
It is important to specify that Android cannot support natively the communication established
with web services. For this reason, we use a specific open source WSDL library, ksoap2-android,
to call web service s from the Android applications.
3.
O
PTIMIZATION
3.1. Distance Calculation
In the initial system, to find the nearest volunteer donor in order to send the call request, the
system calculates the distance as crow flies using both the healthcare centers and the living
donors’ coordinates. To determine the location of nearest donor, calculating the distance as crow
flies was effectual on the paper, but some problems -such as traffic jam, physical conditions, or
road conditions- appear when it is put into real life practice. Calculating the distance as crow flies
isn’t sufficient for the system. So an optimization in distance calculation is decided. Previously,
to calculate the distance, requester healthcare coordinates was taken as the coordinates of the
circle drawn virtually on the map with the radius of which the length is determined by the user.
Then, appropriate ones among the donors whose coordinates are in the area covered by this circle
are selected. As it can be easily understand from Figure 4, being in the area covered by the
virtual circle does not mean that the donor can reach the hospital in real life. For this reason, an
adjustment is made by taking actual road conditions into account and the Google maps functions
are inserted into distance calculation. This calculation helps to determine not only nearest
volunteer living donor but the most realistic one. It should be noticed that one of the most
important constraints in this system is the time. Any optimization or improvement on nearest
donor determination will be vital in emergency cases.
3.2. Development Environment
The second improvement on the system is made for Android’s users. As everyone agrees, many
software and hardware products cannot meet the requirements of the new technologies because of
its fast development. Even in the case they are sufficient to meet the requirements, ensuring the
28
Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT)
integration between different kind of material and software requires really a hard work and the
process takes time.
The initial system has been developed on Android Studio using ANT[18]. It is one of the oldest
Java library and command-
line tool whose mission is to drive processes described in build files as
targets and extension p
oints dependent upon each other
ANT, Maven or Ivy. Each of them has its own strengths and weaknesses. ANT has
structure but it is the developer’s job to determine every development step. Also, it doesn’t have
the library management. For example, if the project needs a library with .jar extension, finding
these related .jar files and copying them t
responsibilities. Maven [19] enforces a standardized project layout. This saves time getting new
people working on the projects. It provides automatic resolution of dependencies which are
cached so that
if there are multiple projects, there is no need to keep making local copies. Maven
also promotes the concept of a resource repository and can create complex products with minimal
direction. Also, the build environment is pretty portable but it has a very
This causes a real problem if the project has an unusual type. It’s very easy to make the library
management and move the project on Maven in case if the project complies totally with Maven's
compelling structure. Gradle [17] is a bui
strengths of all above mentioned building tools. It offers both ANT’s flexibility and library
management without Maven’s coercion. It easily allows the developer to create .jar and/or .war
files using the p
roject’s source code, run the test and integrate the add
uses Maven’s library management, it ensures simple organization of .jar files’ part. Another
advantage provided by Gradle is the ability of managing multiple projects in a
a solid infrastructure to enable to integrate any existing project without structural changes.
Therefore, in order to guarantee a successful result of the improvements made on the project, the
system has been carried on integrated dev
evolves, many of old systems have been removed on Gradle which offers better performance.
Figure 3.
The difference between distance as
Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT)
oints dependent upon each other
.There are several building tools such as
ANT, Maven or Ivy. Each of them has its own strengths and weaknesses. ANT has
a very flexible
these related .jar files and copying them t
o relevant directories is entirely under developer’s
direction. Also, the build environment is pretty portable but it has a very
standardized layouts.
compelling structure. Gradle [17] is a bui
ld automation framework which brings together the
roject’s source code, run the test and integrate the add
-
on or other programs. As it
advantage provided by Gradle is the ability of managing multiple projects in a
simple way. It has
system has been carried on integrated dev
elopment framework Gradle. Besides, as the technology
The difference between distance as
crow files and real distance
integration between different kind of material and software requires really a hard work and the
The initial system has been developed on Android Studio using ANT[18]. It is one of the oldest
line tool whose mission is to drive processes described in build files as
.There are several building tools such as
a very flexible
structure but it is the developer’s job to determine every development step. Also, it doesn’t have
the library management. For example, if the project needs a library with .jar extension, finding
o relevant directories is entirely under developer’s
responsibilities. Maven [19] enforces a standardized project layout. This saves time getting new
people working on the projects. It provides automatic resolution of dependencies which are
if there are multiple projects, there is no need to keep making local copies. Maven
also promotes the concept of a resource repository and can create complex products with minimal
standardized layouts.
This causes a real problem if the project has an unusual type. It’s very easy to make the library
management and move the project on Maven in case if the project complies totally with Maven's
ld automation framework which brings together the
strengths of all above mentioned building tools. It offers both ANT’s flexibility and library
management without Maven’s coercion. It easily allows the developer to create .jar and/or .war
on or other programs. As it
uses Maven’s library management, it ensures simple organization of .jar files’ part. Another
simple way. It has
a solid infrastructure to enable to integrate any existing project without structural changes.
Therefore, in order to guarantee a successful result of the improvements made on the project, the
elopment framework Gradle. Besides, as the technology
evolves, many of old systems have been removed on Gradle which offers better performance.
Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT) 29
4.
C
ONCLUSIONS
In this study, we presented a smart phone’s application for the volunteer blood donor to increase
the willingness and accessibility with the purpose of providing a continuous blood supply. This
application helps health care centers to provide the blood as quick as possible when their stocks
are insufficient. The application sends periodically actual location information of available donors
to main system and the blood requests to the donors. In this way, it provides an uninterrupted
communication between the health care centers and volunteer donors. The distance of the
volunteer donors to the healthcare center is an important criterion in the determination of the
donors. Therefore an optimization is also realized on this process. In the initial system, the
distance calculation is made by taking the distance as crow flies. In the optimized system, it is
converted to the actual distance. This optimization makes the system more realistic. The second
improvement is performed on the system’s infrastructure. Especially, by taking into consideration
the rapid development of mobile device technology which uses Android operating system, the
system has been carried from the from ANT building environment onto Grade build automation
platform. In further studies, we aim the add evaluation of traffic density between living donors’
locations and healthcare centers to the living donor selection criteria
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research is supported financially by Galatasaray University Scientific Research Project no:
13.401.004 .The author would like to thank Galatasaray University Scientific Research Council
for their support.
R
EFERENCES
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30 Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT)
A
UTHORS
Sultan N. Turhan
received MSc degree in computational science and engineering in
2003 from Istanbul Technical University and her Ph.D degree in Engineering
Management from Marmara University. Between 1992 – 1998, she worked as database
administrator, IT project coordinator and IT responsible in different institutions.
Between 2002 – 2006, she also worked for Intelitek– Element A.S as academic
consultant for distance learning and e-learning platforms. Since 1998, she is working
as senior lecturer in Computer Engineering department of Galatasaray University.
Currently she is working on developing mob
ile software in special education area for
the children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
... Sultan Turhan (2015) proposed an android application for volunteer blood donors to boost willingness and accessibility to ensure a steady supply of blood. The application assists health care centres in providing blood as quickly as possible when their stocks are low, as well as sending periodic actual location information of available donors to the main system and blood requests are sent to donors, ensuring ongoing communication between health care facilities and voluntary donors, and making the system more practical [10]. ...
... Sultan Turhan (2015) proposed an android application for volunteer blood donors to boost willingness and accessibility to ensure a steady supply of blood. The application assists health care centres in providing blood as quickly as possible when their stocks are low, as well as sending periodic actual location information of available donors to the main system and blood requests are sent to donors, ensuring ongoing communication between health care facilities and voluntary donors, and making the system more practical [10]. P. Priya (2014) proposed a web service with a mobile application for the optimization of blood donors information and management systems, update the information regarding donors, acceptors, and patients where the administrator can access all the information about the blood bank management system. ...
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Objectives Given the current shortage of blood donors in the USA, researchers have tried to identify different strategies to attract more young people and spread the voice of donors’ needs. Methods A systematic literature review is conducted to investigate the current mobile applications used to track, attract, and retain donors. We also provide some preliminary results of a pilot study, based on a cross-sectional survey of 952 participants (aged 18 to 39), about the willingness of donors to use mobile apps as tools for encouraging blood donation. The data is collected using a 20-item questionnaire, which includes four constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior to assess the respondents’ willingness to donate blood. A range of statistical techniques, including univariate analysis, multivariate analysis, and structural equation modeling, were utilized to analyze the collected data. Results The 37 research articles, selected after applying several exclusion criteria, are classified into five main categories. The majority of the research (44.1%) is about using mobile apps to find blood donors and blood centers, followed by publications on using mobile apps to encourage blood donation (26.4%) and to recruit blood donors (14.7%). The remaining studies are about retaining blood donors (8.8%) and using mobile apps for scheduling donations (5.8%). Our pilot case study suggests that 73% of participants have favorable perceptions toward a blood donation mobile app. Conclusions Many efforts have been undertaken to employ mobile apps to make blood donations more convenient and create communities around donating blood. The case study findings suggest a high level of readiness of using mobile apps for blood donation among the younger generation.
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Full-text available
  • Feb 2003
This study aimed to investigate the impact and effects of blood donation on blood donors as perceived and reported by donors themselves. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 600 consecutive whole-blood donors (who had a history of at least one previous donation) consisting of an open-ended question asking whether the blood donation had any impact on the donor. The answers to this question were considered as descriptions of effects perceived by the donors to be evoked by whole-blood donation. In all, 528 subjects completed the questionnaire (88%; 319 males and 209 females) and answered the question about the effects of blood donation. Altogether, 54% (287 out of 528) of the blood donors reported one or several effects. Exclusively positive effects were described by 29% (151) of blood donors, while exclusively negative effects and mixed effects (i.e. concomitant positive and negative effects in the same subject) were described by 19% (103) and 6% (33), respectively, while no effect was reported by 46% (241) of the donors. A majority of the effects commenced within 1 h of blood donation. The positive effects lasted significantly longer (often for weeks, P < 0.0001) than negative effects (min/h/days). Among positive effects a feeling of satisfaction, of being more alert, and feeling generally better than before the blood donation predominated for both female and male donors. Among negative effects, vertigo/dizziness was reported more frequently by female donors (P < 0.0001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the negative effects were less likely to occur with increasing age (P < 0.001) and that they were more likely to occur in female donors (P < 0.001) in comparison to male donors, irrespective of age. The majority of effects elicited by blood donation on blood donors were positive (i.e. feelings of satisfaction, greater alertness, increased wellbeing, etc.). The positive effects did not differ from the negative regarding time of onset, yet their duration was reported to be significantly longer. There was no association between frequency of occurrence of positive effects and the number of blood donations, indicating that there is no 'addictive' relationship between donors and blood donations. The findings in this study of high frequency of occurrence of positive long-lasting effects elicited in blood donors by blood donation may be of great importance for the recruitment of new blood donors as it may make blood donation less frightening and perhaps even attractive.
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Challenges in the management of the blood supply
Article
  • May 2013
  • LANCET
Although blood suppliers are seeing short-term reductions in blood demand as a result of initiatives in patient blood management, modelling suggests that during the next 5-10 years, blood availability in developed countries will need to increase again to meet the demands of ageing populations. Increasing of the blood supply raises many challenges; new approaches to recruitment and retainment of future generations of blood donors will be needed, and care will be necessary to avoid taking too much blood from these donors. Integrated approaches in blood stock management between transfusion services and hospitals will be important to minimise wastage-eg, by use of supply chain solutions from industry. Cross-disciplinary systems for patient blood management need to be developed to lessen the need for transfusion-eg, by early identification and reversal of anaemia with haematinics or by reversal of the underlying cause. Personalised medicine could be applied to match donors to patients, not only with extended blood typing, but also by using genetically determined storage characteristics of blood components. Growing of red cells or platelets in large quantities from stem cells is a possibility in the future, but challenges of cost, scaling up, and reproducibility remain to be solved.
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Blood Inventory Management: Hospital Best Practice
Article
  • Oct 2011
Blood is a perishable product, and hence good management of inventories is crucial. Blood inventory management is a trade-off between shortage and wastage. The challenge is to keep enough stock to ensure a 100% supply of blood while keeping time expiry losses at a minimum. This article focuses on inventory management of red blood cells in hospital transfusion laboratories to derive principles of best practice and makes recommendations that will ensure losses due to time expiry are kept to a minimum. The literature was reviewed to identify available models for perishable inventory management. Historical data from the UK blood supply chain was analyzed to identify hospitals with good inventory management practice and low wastage levels. Transfusion laboratory managers in the selected hospitals were interviewed in 7 case studies with the aim of identifying drivers for low wastage and good inventory management practice. The findings from the case studies were compared with the literature. The extant literature asserts that the drivers for good inventory performance are the use of complex inventory models and algorithms. This study has found this not to be the case. Instead, good performance is driven by the quality of transfusion laboratory staff, who must be skilled, regularly trained, and experienced. Electronic crossmatching, transparency of the inventory, and simple management procedures also facilitate good performance.
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Enhancing blood donation intentions using multimedia donor education materials
Article
  • Feb 2011
  • TRANSFUSION
Prior research has shown that education materials that directly address prospective donor concerns and provide specific coping suggestions are particularly effective at enhancing donation attitudes and intentions to give blood. This study compared the effect of donor coping materials, provided in written and audiovisual formats, as potential tools to enhance recruitment of prospective blood donors. The role of initial attitudes toward blood donation on responses to these materials was also considered. Young adults (62% female; mean [SD] age=19.1 [1.4]; mean [range] prior blood donations=1.32 [0-13]) were randomly assigned to 1) read a brochure addressing common blood donor concerns and suggesting specific coping strategies, 2) view a video addressing blood donor concerns and illustrating coping techniques, 3) read the brochure and view the video, or 4) read a control brochure on healthy eating and exercise. Measures of blood donation attitudes, anxiety, confidence, and intentions to give blood were completed before and after the intervention. Relative to the control brochure, all the intervention groups showed larger reductions in anxiety, more positive changes in attitude, and greater increases in donation confidence and intentions. The combination of the brochure and video outperformed either intervention alone in further improving donation attitudes among participants with high initial donation attitudes. Blood donation coping materials, presented in either written or audiovisual formats, significantly enhance willingness to donate blood among young adults regardless of their initial attitudes toward blood donation.
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Blood donors and factors impacting the blood donation process
Article
  • May 2002
  • TRANSFUS MED REV
The aging of the US population and the evidence that only about 5% of individuals in the United States donate blood each year raise concerns about the assurance of an adequate, safe supply of blood in the future. Blood donation decision making has been investigated worldwide for decades to understand the process better to increase donation efficiency, safety, retention, collection numbers, and diversity of the donor pool. This review focuses on the characteristics of allogeneic blood donors, the motivational sources in donor decision making, and the research concepts and techniques used to examine these factors. Some historic studies considered pivotal, as well as more recent surveys, may not be pertinent to or representative of the current national donor pool. Interpretation of data related to donor characteristics should examine whether demographics mirror the donor pool to assist in targeted recruitment or if targeted recruitment actually leads to the reported demographics. Few recent studies of donor motivation have been published. Modern sources of positive and negative motivation are worth exploring through scientifically sound investigations involving representative cohorts using multifactorial approaches. Strategies that focus on retaining return donors and transforming first-time donors into repeaters would be beneficial. Investigations are needed also to assess research questions and to develop well-designed interventions to test hypotheses and to produce generalizable findings applicable to future donor decision making.
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Predicting blood donor arrival
Article
  • Mar 2005
Keeping waiting time at blood donation short is important for making donation a good experience for the donors and hence to motivate for repeat donations. At the Blood Bank of Oslo, fixed appointments are used, and few donors arrive without appointments. On average, 59 percent of scheduled donors arrive, but day-to-day variations are large. Methods for predicting the number of donors that will arrive on a given day would be valuable in reducing waiting times. Information about candidate explanatory variables was collected for all appointments made in a 971-day period (179,121 appointments). A logistic regression model for the prediction of blood donor arrival was fitted. Among 18 explanatory variables, the most important were the time from appointment making to appointment date; the contact medium used; the donor age and total number of donations; and the number of no-shows, arrivals, and deferrals during the preceding 2 years. Compared to taking only the average arrival rate into account, prediction intervals were reduced by 43 percent. Statistical modeling can provide useful estimates of blood donor arrival, allowing for better planning of donation sessions.
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Strengthening the service continuum between transfusion providers and suppliers: Enhancing the blood services network
Article
  • Nov 2005
As the cost of health care increases, the focus on cost containment grows. The pressure to reduce costs comes at the same time the public focus is on ensuring a zero‐risk blood supply. The blood supply has never been safer or more expensive. With the relative vanquishing of transfusion‐transmitted diseases, noninfectious risks now exceed infectious risks. This has resulted in a call to refocus blood safety efforts on interconnected processes that link a unit of blood from its volunteer blood donor to the patient. Additional costs in the blood supply chain will create new pressures on an already taxed system that gets little additional reimbursement with each new safety initiative. Opposing interests have created a tenuous relationship between the blood supplier and the transfusion provider. This adversarial relationship does not benefit the ultimate stakeholder, the patient. It is time to create a service partnership that is built on access, cost, and quality. Initiatives must be undertaken at a local, regional, and national level. Locally, blood suppliers and transfusion providers must reevaluate policies that are focused on individual gain and reinvent policies that will reward improvements in the overall system and expand cooperative services. Regionally, both blood suppliers and transfusion providers need to consolidate services to gain cost and quality benefits without compromising the competitive nature of the industry. Nationally, the creation of a strategic plan will help ensure that a mutually beneficial relationship focused on the patient is created between the blood supplier and transfusion provider at all levels. Development of such a plan would benefit the transfusing and supplying parties by identifying areas of common interest and how each may facilitate the achievement of shared benefits.
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  • Jan 2011
  • D A Dutta
Dutta, D.A. et al., 2011,Artificial Human Blood, Inventi Impact: Pharm Tech, Vol. 2011,No.1