Blood

With the Philippines' blood supply still falling short of the target, patients in need of blood turn to
online networks to look for kind-hearted strangers willing to donate.

MANILA, Philippines – Aena Briones was a grade school student when she was told to
scour hospitals and look for blood. Her grandmother had been rushed to a hospital in
Quezon City, a wound in her stomach, and needed blood badly. At the time, Aena was
the only one in Metro Manila who could tend to her grandmother.

She remembers feeling out of her depth: a young girl going around from hospital to
hospital, asking if they had blood units available, and walking away empty-handed. It
wasn't until she finally called her mother that they were able to find what they needed at
a blood bank of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).

Fast forward several years later, and Aena – remembering what she had to go through
to help her grandmother – is now involved in Dugong Bayani, an online initiative that
helps connect blood donors with patients who need them.

It was also by going online that Lish Mendoza was able to find blood donors for her sick
father. In October last year, her family found out that her father's bone marrow could no
longer produce enough blood cells, and he was in urgent need of blood every two
weeks.

Lish – who also regularly donated blood – found herself having to look for at least 6
volunteers to provide AB+ blood that her father needed.

So she turned to Facebook. Her name and face reappeared every so often on
Facebook groups for blood donors and patients, as she appealed for kind-hearted
strangers to spare a few hours of their day, come to the UST Hospital in Sampaloc,
Manila, and help save her father's life.

While there are blood banks in hospitals and centers like the PRC, the country's blood
supply still falls short of the target – which means that desperate patients may find
themselves going from blood bank to blood bank, and not finding enough stock for their
much-needed transfusions.

Because of this, people like Aena and Lish are turning to online networks in a bid to
connect directly to those who can help.

Help from good Samaritans

Because her father needed several bags of blood at least twice a month, Lish found it
difficult to find enough volunteers who were not only willing to go all the way to the
hospital to donate, but also met the requirements for donating blood.

She posts frequently in a Facebook group calling for volunteers, and already lists down
the hospital's guidelines for potential donors – she's had some instances where
volunteers who responded to her call were turned away because they didn't meet the
requirements for donating blood.

Some of those who responded to her call even came all the way from Bulacan and Las
Piñas just to donate.

"Some of them even call just to refer me to other organizations or people who can help.
At least 4 people have done this for me," she said.

Still, she's had to beat the clock several times just to collect the required number of
blood units for her father's transfusion.

"I went to the Port Area at midnight, so I could look for blood. I got back to the UST
Hospital at 2 am. The transfusion was set at 8 am," she recalled.

Recalling her own difficulty in finding blood for her grandmother, Aena and other
members of the University of the Philippines Red Cross Youth thought to link up
potential blood donors with patients through Dugong Bayani.

The group initially began through the university network, coordinating student donors'
free time and linking them up with patients confined in nearby hospitals.

It now has its own Facebook page, where those who need blood fill out a form with
details such as the blood type and component needed, the patient's medical condition,
and the hospital where the patient is confined.

Dugong Bayani posts this information online, allowing donors to contact the patients
directly.

Below target

Aside from linking up directly with blood donors, one other way of getting blood is
through the PRC, which provides nearly half of the Philippines' blood needs.

Last year, the PRC provided 407,000 units of blood – nearly half of the 920,000 blood
units collected by blood centers nationwide, according to the Department of Health
(DOH).
Despite this, the country's blood supply is still below target.

For a country to have adequate blood supply, the World Health Organization (WHO)
says 1% of the total population must donate blood each year.

In recent years, however, the Philippines has still been falling short: in 2015, a total of
770,000 blood units were collected, and last year, that figure increased to 920,000.

For 2017, at least 1.03 million people – 1% of the 103 million population – should
donate blood to reach the target.

"One percent of the total population must donate for the country to have sufficient blood
supply. But because we don't meet this, there's the chance that some may die because
they are not given blood," Hanzel Sentones, donor recruitment head of the PRC
National Blood Services, said in a mix of English and Filipino.

The PRC, the DOH, and other organizations around the country regularly conduct blood
drives, but with the sheer number of people requesting for blood, it's hard to keep up
with the nationwide demand. On any given day, more than 2,000 blood units are used
for transfusions throughout the country.

It's also more challenging when the lean months roll in.

For the PRC, fewer donors come in around December, January, and the summer
months from March to May.

Most donors come in during August, September, October, and February, when blood
drives are plenty. Every day, though, the PRC has not been wanting of clients needing
blood.

"And because we don't meet the WHO's target, we see on the ground how high the
demand is," Sentones said.

Since the start of the year, Sentones said the PRC has helped 140,000 patients with
more than 200,000 blood units. Out of the 140,000, 20,000 are indigent and charity
patients.

It's not only the PRC and its 84 blood service units that provide blood to those who need
it. Ideally, hospitals should have adequate stock in their own in-house blood banks. But
when these run out, clients have the option of going to the PRC, submitting a blood
request form, and bringing the blood back to the hospital – as what Aena did for her
grandmother.
The PRC also has partnerships with several hospitals, providing them some of their
blood stocks aside from servicing walk-in clients.

Process of donation

The PRC's blood supply relies on free and voluntary blood donations. Soliciting
payment for blood is illegal, based on Republic Act 7719 or the National Blood Services
Act.

The blood donation process takes around 30 minutes. Donors fill out a questionnaire
detailing their medical history. They will be interviewed and assessed by doctors to
check whether they meet the requirements for donating blood.

These may vary among blood centers – some hospitals can have stricter guidelines –
but according to the PRC's basic requirements, blood donors should:

 be in good health
 between 16 and 65 years old (those aged 16 and 17 need parental
consent)
 weigh at least 110 pounds
 have a blood pressure between 90 and 160 mmHg (systolic), 60 and 100
mmHg (diastolic)
 pass the physical and health history assessments

After this, the extraction process begins. The donor will then be allowed to rest for
several minutes and given refreshments.

Every time someone donates blood, the PRC conducts screening processes to make
sure the donated blood is safe for transfusion and free from transfusion transmissible
infections, such as HIV, malaria, syphilis, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.

Donors also get a blood donor's card from the PRC that not only serves as a record of
donation, but also gives priority to the donor when he or she is in need of blood.

But while donating blood is free, there is a fee charged from those who request for
blood to cover the costs of screening and processing.

Based on RA 7719, blood centers can charge service fees for the collection and
processing of donated blood.

"Since the PRC is not funded by the government, we charge a processing fee. We are
just asking a fee for the processing. We use resources, manpower, blood bags,
equipment, reagents, and that's what people pay for when they pay the fee," Sentones
said.

The fees charged by the PRC depend on the kind of blood component needed by the
patient: P1,800 for whole blood, P1,500 for packed red blood cells, and P1,000 for
platelets and plasma.

Those who cannot afford the fees can have them waived with an endorsement from the
hospital's social worker. The PRC also runs a Blood Samaritan program – donations
coursed through this program are used to pay for the blood processing fees availed by
indigent patients.

In Lish's experience, the frequent blood needs of her sick father – around 6 bags every
two weeks – meant shelling out around P12,000 every month.

But what adds to the expenses are additional processing fees charged by the hospital
where her father is confined.

Every time Lish gets blood from other blood banks or from the PRC, she would have to
pay additional fees at her father's hospital, which screens the acquired blood before it
can be used for the transfusions.

It's double the expense, Lish said. Why does blood from the PRC – which has already
been screened prior to storage in the blood bank – have to be retested again when
brought to a different medical facility?

Sentones said this is one of the issues encountered by clients.

"Kawawa naman 'yung patients kasi they have paid for the processing fee sa Red
Cross, so we assured them na it's free from any transmissible infection. Pagdating sa
ospital, pagte-test ulit. So 'yung mga kliyente natin especially those who cannot afford
multiple processing fees, magrereklamo. Tested na ng Red Cross 'yan, ite-test 'nyo pa
ulit?" Sentones said.

(It’s unfortunate for the patients, because they have paid for the processing fee at the
Red Cross, so we assured them that it's free from any transmissible infection. And then
when they get to the hospital, it's going to be retested. So our clients, especially those
who cannot afford multiple processing fees, they complain. It's already been tested by
the Red Cross, and it'll be tested again?)

Sentones also said some hospitals have a policy of only accepting donors who go
straight to the hospital, and don't accept blood units from the PRC or from other blood
centers.
"Maybe it's part of their protocol or they have specifications. Some patients are more
sensitive, especially if the shelf life of the blood has already been too long. There are
doctors who want blood extracted within 3 days... There are those instances," he said.

A human face to the statistics

This is why people like Lish prefer to look for donors themselves – it saves them
additional expenses.

While online groups like Dugong Bayani help make the search process easier, it also
has another aim: to promote its advocacy of getting people to donate blood.

To do this, its approach is a little more personal – most donors actually get to meet the
patients whose lives they will be saving.

By forging that personal connection, Aena said this can encourage them to keep
donating blood, since they will now see the human side of the problem and not just
mere statistics.

She recalled how some patients' relatives asked them why they were making the effort
to come all the way to the hospitals and personally meet the patients.

"Ang sabi nila, ang hassle ng ginagawa ninyo...but the donors need to see what's
happening on the ground. Kailangan nila makita ang impact – feeling ko do'n nagla-
lack," Aena said.

(They said, what we're doing seems to be a hassle for us…but the donors need to see
what's happening on the ground. They need to see the impact, and that's where I think
the blood advocacy is lacking.)

One of her most memorable encounters was accompanying a friend who donated blood
for a patient who had a problem with her kidneys.

"When we entered the ward, we were met with applause, and the grandmother led
everyone in singing a thank you song. She was very grateful that a stranger helped
them. I think we were the last people they were waiting for to complete the needed
blood bags," Aena recalled.

For the PRC, getting Filipinos to understand the importance of donating blood is still a
challenge.

Sentones said that if Filipinos only understood how very much needed their blood was,
it would be easier for the country to reach the blood supply target.
Filipinos may not realize it, he said, but their blood can reach the farthest parts of the
Philippines, helping save lives in far-flung provinces.

For Aena, what's lacking in current initiatives to encourage blood donation is attaching a
human face to the problem.

"Kapag nag-invite ako mag-donate, nakaka-disappoint 'yung sagot na, 'I never thought
about it.' Hindi alam ng mga tao ang pangangailangan," she said.

(Whenever I invite someone to donate, it's disappointing to hear the answer, "I never
thought about it." People don't know the extent of the need for blood.) – Rappler.com

https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/180446-blood-donation-online-networks-philippine-red-
cross

MANILA -- The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday urged the public to take part in its
campaign for voluntary and unpaid blood donation which is an integral part of universal health care
(UHC).

"Blood transfusion saves millions of lives every year. It is needed in most medical procedures,
instances of accidents or emergency," said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III in a press briefing.

Duque reported the DOH has received one million blood units, adding that the department's goal is
to meet 100 percent voluntary non-remunerated blood donation by 2020.

"On June 14, we will be celebrating World Blood Donor Day with the theme 'Safe Blood for All' that
aims to give gratitude to voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood. I enjoin
everyone for collective action towards this goal and give the gift of life by donating your blood," he
added.

Senator Richard Gordon, also Philippine Red Cross (PRC) chairperson, stressed the need for
additional blood banks and increased awareness about the importance of regular blood donations in
ensuring that individuals and communities have access to enough and safe supply of blood.

"What will happen if there are blood donors, but there's no access, sometimes we also request for
blood banks, the DOH has a number of blood stations and blood centers but there is still a need in
Tawi-Tawi, Batanes, we'll establish centers there," he said.

Gordon also appealed to the private hospitals to stop selling blood, or require the collection of blood
from donors before giving it to patients.

"It is wrong for hospitals with blood bank to request for donors first before providing the blood you
need. Someone asked for blood and was charged PHP6,000, that's atrocious. What if you need a lot
of blood, say five bags? That will be 30,000 pesos. So I have written a letter to Secretary Duque and
it has been acted upon," he added.
Philippine Blood Coordinating Council president Gary Ong said some Filipinos are still clueless
about the purpose of blood donations that is why they do not donate blood.

"Huwag po ninyo sisihin ang DOH o PRC kung minsan kulang pa rin ang supply ng dugo kasi hindi
naman lahat kayo ay nagbibigay ng dugo(Don't blame the DOH or PRC for the shortage of blood
supply since only a few people donate blood)," he said.

Ong added anyone who is 16 to 65 years old can donate blood but "he or she must at least be 50
kilos, physically and mentally fit, has no fever, 125 grams per liter hemoglobin for females, 135
grams per liter hemoglobin for males, has no high blood pressure and has no diabetes".

"If you have a tattoo, you can still donate, but you need to wait for one year since you had your tattoo
before you can do blood donation. But if you're practicing high-risk behavior like multiple sex
partners, men having sex with men, drug use and abuse, please avert from donating blood" he said.

World Health Organization country representative Gundo Weiler congratulated the DOH and PRC
for the upward trend in the number of blood units collected from 2017 to 2018 due to their
continuous public awareness campaign on blood donation

"Access to safe blood is indeed an indicator of an effective health system and now that the
Philippines is towards UHC, we need to ramp up the supply of safe blood donations to fully support
the mission and the vision of the UHC. I wish every Filipino to join our pool of regular blood donors to
save the lives of a child, a woman or man," Weiler said. (PNA)

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1072036

Abstract
Go to:

Introduction
Conventionally, when a patient needs blood, he/she has to contact a blood bank or a compatible
blood group of a donor in their circle, family, and friends. However, it is difficult to find suitable
donor within a limited group of people in a given time. In addition, there is no guarantee that
blood banks will have compatible blood group in stock. There is also steady increase in blood
donation requests posts in social networking sites (like Facebook, twitter, Instagram, etc.)
requesting for donation.
Ease of access, requirements of blood, and the blood donation statistics (1,2) are taken into
consideration while researching the topic. There is a steady need for blood and blood
components (red blood cells, blood plasma, platelets). Every minute of every day someone is in
need for blood, however as e.g., in Canada (3), only 1 in 60 Canadians gave blood last year,
when almost 1 of every 2 Canadians is eligible to donate. 52% of Canadians say they or a family
member have needed blood or blood products. The blood donation rate in high-income countries
is 33.1 donations per 1,000 people; 11.7 donations in middle-income countries and 4.6 donations
in low-income countries (1). As a result, finding blood donor is becoming very difficult in almost
every country.
There are some blood donor finder applications such as Blood app by Red Cross which allows
the donor to book appointment with blood banks and also can find local blood drives and
donation centers quickly and easily (4). However, there is no direct communication between the
donor and that clinic in need of a specific blood type. As a result, this app is more beneficial for
donors but not for clinics to find needed blood type directly and promptly. Blood Donor Finder
application by Neologix (5) allows users in need for blood to find nearest donors. Although this
application helps finding donors, but the ease of communication with those donors is not prompt
and it requires man power as the requester (patient or clinic) has to contact each donor
individually. Also, there is no application that provides a proper communication channel to
notify donors about the blood donation requirements.
BLOODR application can resolve these issues by connecting patients promptly with a large pool
of donors in the same region via an authorized clinic. When a patient needs a blood donation, the
clinic (where the patient is admitted) can use the application to contact the blood donors in the
vicinity or nearby city based on their location. The registered donors will get notification about
the blood donation needed at a specific clinic where they can go and donate.
BLOODR application provides donors with functionalities including “blood request feed”,
“donation history”, “invite friend”, and “book an appointment” (with the clinic to donate blood),
at the same time the requester (aka clinic) can send requests and use this application to maintain
the different blood donation activities.
Go to:

Methods
To develop BLOODR Web application, Ruby programming language (simply known as Ruby)
along with JavaScript and PostgreSQL for database are used. Ruby on Rails (simply known as
Rails) is an open source Web framework that makes it possible to quickly and easily create data-
based Web applications. Rails is based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern for
application architecture. Ruby installer installs Ruby Gems, a package manager for Ruby
libraries that one can use to install other components including Rails (6).
RubyGems (6) are pre-built so that developing the web application with Rails is efficient.
BLOODR uses some of the existing gems such as devise, public_activity, jquery-timepicker-
rails, pg, nifty-generators, coffee-rails gem, therubyracer, rack, and rake. In the following, we
briefly explain these gems:
Devise gem: devise is a popular gem that provides full-featured authentication solution which
handles all of the controller logic and form views. It provides BLOODR with an API for
login/registration pages for different user types and session maintenance (7).
Public_Activity gem: Public_Activity provides easy activity tracking for Active Record,
Mongoid 3 and MongoMapper models in Rails 3 and 4 (8). In BLOODR, Public activity gem is
extended to show blood request feeds.
Jquery-timepicker-rails gem: jquery timepicker is a lightweight timepicker plugin for jquery
inspired by Google Calendar (9). It is used in the appointment booking feature.
Therubyracer gem: it evaluates JavaScript from within Ruby and embed Ruby objects into the
JavaScript world as implemented in BLOODR. It also manipulates JavaScript objects and call
JavaScript functions from Ruby (10).
Pg gem: Pg (11) is the Ruby interface to the PostgreSQL which is a relational database
management system (RDBMS). BLOODR application uses PostgreSQL database. Pg gem is
used to provide interface to the BLOODR database.
Nifty-generators gem: nifty-generators (12) gem is a collection of useful Rails generator scripts
for scaffolding, layout files, authentication, and more. In the BLOODR, nifty-generators gem
used to generate different layout and scaffolding files including:
I. Nifty: layout, generates generic layout, stylesheet, and helper files.
II. Nifty: scaffold, generates a controller and optional model/migration.
III. Nifty: config, generates a config YAML file and loader.
IV. Nifty: authentication, generates user model with sign up and log in.
Coffee-Rails gem: CoffeeScript adapter for the Rails asset pipeline (13). BLOODR uses
CoffeeScript to respond to JavaScript requests.
Rack gem: rack provides a minimal, modular and adaptable interface for developing web
applications in Ruby. By wrapping HTTP requests and responses in the simplest way possible, it
unifies and distills the API for web servers, web frameworks, and software in between (the so-
called middleware) into a single method call (14). BLOODR uses rack to provide HTTP web
server services to different types of application users.
Rake: rake is a Make-like program implemented in Ruby. Tasks and dependencies are specified
in standard Ruby syntax (15). BLOODR uses Rake as Task Management Tool to perform
different tasks and database migrations.
Based on UML methodology, this application design includes sequence diagrams, use case
diagrams and class diagrams. These diagrams are useful to visualize the architecture of a system.
Using sequence diagram, we can understand the collaboration of objects (requesters, donors, and
admin) based on a time sequence. It shows the interactions between objects in a particular
scenario of a use case. For example, as a requester object, once requesters login into the
application, they can be able to see the Blood Request feed, they can notify the donor using send
request feature which notify the matching blood donors, and also can also track their request
history.
Use case diagram is useful to identify different functions and show how the actor users can
interact with these functions based on their roles. An actor can be a donor, requester, admin
based on the actor’s role using the application. The Primary actor is the requester user who uses
the application to notify the Donors. The use cases can be Blood Request feed, Book
appointment, invite friends, donation history etc.
Class diagrams are the most common diagram found in modeling object-oriented systems. A
class diagram shows a set of classes, interfaces, collaborations, and their relationships. Class
diagram shows the relationships between different classes like Donor, Requester, and Admin,
and subclasses such as Blood Request feed, Donation History, and Book Appointment. Class
diagrams are used to model the static design view of a system (16). The main classes of the
application are:
User: this class represents the Users of the application. Each object of this class will have the
association with all the other classes. The user will have attributes such as Name, Email,
password, and Address. User has methods to access BLOODR including as register (), login ().
The main users in the application are Donor, Requester and Admin.
Donor: the Donor is one of the user types so it has same attributes mentioned above. Donor has
features like Blood Request Feed, Donation History, Invite Friends, and Book Appointment.
 ϖ Blood Request Feed (): this subclass is useful to view the Blood Requests.
 ϖ Donation History (): using this subclass Donor user can see their Blood donation
history.
 ϖ Invite Friends (): this subclass is useful to invite friends of donor users by entering the
friends email.
 ϖ Book Appointment (): this subclass is useful to book appointment with clinics to
donate blood.
Requester: this class represents the Requester which is the clinic as one of the user type of the
application. It has same attributes of the user type and features like Blood Request Feed, Send
Request, Request History, and View Appointment.
 ϖ Send Request (): using this subclass, requester can send blood donation notification to
donors
 ϖ Request History (): this subclass is useful to view the request history.
 ϖ View Appointment (): this subclass is useful to see the appointments booked by the
donors.
 ϖ Blood Request Feed (): this subclass is useful to view the Blood Requests.
Admin: the Admin is another user type. It also has same attributes of the user and features like
Manage users, analyze data.
 ϖ Manage users (): this subclass is useful to see the manage users of the application.
 ϖ Analyze data (): this subclass is useful to analysis of the data to get different statistics.
Go to:

Discussion
Here, we discuss how BLOODR works with the three types of users.

Blood donor
Donors can be individuals and blood banks. Donor users can register to the application to receive
notification about blood donation requests when their blood type is required for an admitted
patient to a clinic. In the online registration, users need to provide information about their blood
type and address. Once the user login, he would be able to see the latest blood donation requests
in their city/region using “BlooRequests Feed” as shown in Figure 1. Each notification contains
information about the required blood type and the clinic address together with a request status as
pending if the donation is not done yet. If someone has donated, then the request status is marked
as success so that potential donors would receive an updated notification indicating that the
blood donation has been made and there is no further donation is required for this particular
request. Blood donation has a significant impact on iron stores in frequent donors, particularly
females. Several measures are necessary to prevent, detect, and treat iron deficiency in donors.
These include less frequent donation by donors most susceptible to iron deficiency, and better
education of both donors and their physicians about iron needs associated with blood donation.
Regular blood donors may require a course of iron supplements to replenish the iron lost in blood
donation. These individuals can often return to blood donation, after an adequate course of iron
supplementation (17). As a result, Donor may track his/her donation history details using
“Donation History” to avoid such risky intensive donations before that the body can make up its
lost red blood cells. Donors can invite friends to register to the application using “Invite Friends”
to increase number of donors. When a Donor is notified about a blood request, he/she can book
an appointment witht the clinic that requested the donation using “Book Appointment feature”.

Figure 1
Blood Requests Feed—Donor side.

Blood requester (patients through clinic)

When a patient needs a blood, the clinic where he/she is addmitted would request registered
volunteers in the same or nearby city/state to donate using the “Send Request” of the app. For
example, assuming that a patient is admitted in a clinic in Toronto, those donors in Markham,
Brampton areas may be notified too. Requester can send notification to donors as
emergency/normal depending on the need of the patient as shown in Figure 2. In some cases,
surgeries are scheduled in advance and the blood donation then, if needed, is marked as normal.
Once a request is fulfilled, i.e., when a successful donation made, then the clinic can send
updated notification to the previous recipients. The function “BloodRequests Feed” is to display
requests from other clinics. To enhance the cooperation and communication between different
clinics, “BloodRequests Feed” can be used at one clinic to pass the need of other clinics to those
potential donors who are unaware of the BLOODR app. Clinics can also see their request history
and donation history using “Request History” and “Donations History” features, respectively.
Using the history, clinics can know how many requests they requested and how many donations
made and analyze the data for further research. Clinics are informed about the appointments
scheduled by donors through using “Appointments”. As a result, this application can be helpful
for clinics to send request to donors, keep track of requests and donations history, and view
donor’s appointments with a clinic.

Figure 2
Clinic (Requester) send notification page.

Admin
Admin user can manage users and analyze data. User management includes adding/deleting co-
admin users using “Admin Users” feature shown in Figure 3. Admin can track the list of
donations made at all clinics using “View Donations”. This donations’ follow up can be used to
alert those donors who have frequent donations to avoid risks explained earlier. Admin can also
view all requests made by clinics “View Requests”. This can be used to alert donors (registered
or not) in situations where the donations are not enough to fairly respond to the increasing
number of requests. Admin can see the registered donors list using “Donors List” to alert/delete
those donors, if necessary, who are inactive for a period of time. Also, admin can encourage
those limited number of donors in a specific area/city to invite their friends and relatives to
register to the app. Admin can see the registered clinics using “Requesters List” to encourage
those unregistered clinics to use this app. Using this data collected from all these admin features,
admin can do data analysis.

Figure 3
Admin dashboard.

Data analysis
Admin can use the data collected to analyze rates of donations and requests to get statistics that
can be used to calculate the donors to patients ratio in each city as shown in Figure 4. By using
statistics, we can increase the awareness in the community by conducting donation camps in the
areas that have fewer donors.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5682362/

Abstract
BACKGROUND:
The rapid rise of mobile communication technologies has the potential to dramatically change and
improve blood donor recruitment and retention efforts.
STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:
E-mail invitations were sent to blood donors in a large metropolitan area to participate in a Web-
based survey designed to gauge their readiness and interest level for a blood donation mobile
application ("app").
RESULTS:
A total of 982 ethnically diverse respondents of various age groups and prior donation experiences
were surveyed. Among the respondents, 87.3% had ready access to smart phones. E-mail was
chosen by 62.1% as the currently preferred method when contacted by the blood center, followed by
texting (10.1%). App features desired by most respondents were the abilities to request
appointments 24/7 (76.8%) and to receive appointment confirmations quickly (81.3%). Many were
concerned about receiving too many alerts or messages (64.1%) or insufficient protection for
personal information (53.5%). Overall, 67.7% of respondents indicated that they were likely to use a
blood donation mobile app. Likelihood was not significantly different by sex or ethnicity, and the
impact of education level was limited. Donors who currently made donation appointments via
telephone or a website were equally likely to use such an app. However, donors older than 45 years
were less likely than younger donors (p = 0.001), and donors with more than five lifetime donations
were more likely than less frequent donors to use such an app (p = 0.02).
CONCLUSION:
In a metropolitan area, donors are very receptive to using a mobile app to manage their donations.

Poor appointment-keeping behaviour among repeat

blood donors and its relationship to the intent to donate
again.
Mousavi SA1, Hermundstad B, Kjustad Frøyland EM, Llohn AH, Knutsen TR.

Author information
1

Department of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Akershus University Hospital, University of

Oslo, Lørenskog, Norway.

Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Anecdotal evidence suggests that missed donation appointments among repeat whole-blood donors
are associated with decreased likelihood of future blood donation. This study sought to examine the
relationship between missed donation appointments and intention to donate again among repeat
whole-blood donors and to examine whether demographic variables are related to appointment-
keeping behaviour.

METHODS:
During the period February-June 2013, telephone interviews were conducted with repeat donors
who either did not show up for or cancelled their donation appointments on the day of the
appointment. We asked them whether or not they wanted to schedule appointments for subsequent
donations.

RESULTS:
Rates of missed donation appointments varied by age, but not gender. Although a statistically
significant difference between male and female donors was not found with regard to willingness to
donate again, female donors were more likely than male donors to call and cancel their appointment.
 Finally, compared with repeat donors who called and cancelled their appointment, no-show donors
were 2.5 times less likely to schedule appointments for subsequent donations (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION:
The results demonstrate that poor appointment-keeping behaviour, and in particular no-show
behaviour, is significantly associated with decreased likelihood of future blood donation among
repeat whole-blood donors.

 Format: Abstract

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Transfusion. 2005 Feb;45(2):162-70.

Predicting blood donor arrival.

Bosnes V1, Aldrin M, Heier HE.

Author information
1

Department of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
vidar.bosnes@uus.no

Abstract
BACKGROUND:
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.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:

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.

RESULTS:
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.
CONCLUSION:
Statistical modeling can provide useful estimates of blood donor arrival, allowing for better planning
of donation sessions.

PMID:

15660823

DOI:

10.1111/j.1537-2995.2004.04167.x

Poor appointment-keeping behaviour among repeat

blood donors and its relationship to the intent to donate
again.
Mousavi SA1, Hermundstad B, Kjustad Frøyland EM, Llohn AH, Knutsen TR.

Author information
1

Department of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Akershus University Hospital, University of

Oslo, Lørenskog, Norway.

Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Anecdotal evidence suggests that missed donation appointments among repeat whole-blood donors
are associated with decreased likelihood of future blood donation. This study sought to examine the
relationship between missed donation appointments and intention to donate again among repeat
whole-blood donors and to examine whether demographic variables are related to appointment-
keeping behaviour.

METHODS:
During the period February-June 2013, telephone interviews were conducted with repeat donors
who either did not show up for or cancelled their donation appointments on the day of the
appointment. We asked them whether or not they wanted to schedule appointments for subsequent
donations.
RESULTS:
Rates of missed donation appointments varied by age, but not gender. Although a statistically
significant difference between male and female donors was not found with regard to willingness to
donate again, female donors were more likely than male donors to call and cancel their appointment.
Finally, compared with repeat donors who called and cancelled their appointment, no-show donors
were 2.5 times less likely to schedule appointments for subsequent donations (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION:
The results demonstrate that poor appointment-keeping behaviour, and in particular no-show
behaviour, is significantly associated with decreased likelihood of future blood donation among
repeat whole-blood donors.

Figure 4
A sample chart showing requests of a city—by date (May 24–June 2).

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Conclusions
In recent days, it is noticed the increase in blood request posts on social media such as Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram. Interestingly there are many people across the world interested in
donating blood when there is a need, but those donors don’t have an access to know about the
blood donation requests in their local area. This is because that there is no platform to connect
local blood donors with patients. BLOODR solves the problem and creates a communication
channel through authorized clinics whenever a patient needs blood donation. It is a useful tool to
find compatible blood donors who can receive blood request posts in their local area. Clinics can
use this web application to maintain the blood donation activity. Collected data through this
application can be used to analyse donations to requests rates in a local area to increase the
awareness of people by conducting donations camps.
BLOODR Application can be developed to further improve user accessibility via integrating this
application with various social networks application program interfaces (APIs). Consequently,
users can login and sign up using various social networks. This would increase number of donors
and enhances the process of blood donation.
User interface (UI) can be improved in future to accommodate global audience by supporting
different languages across countries. Data scraping can be done from different social networks
and can be shown in the BloodRequest Feeds. Appointments can be synchronized with Google
and Outlook calendars for the ease of users.
Go to:

Acknowledgements
None.
Go to:

Footnotes
Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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References
1. Blood safety and availability, Fact Sheet July 2016, World Health Organization. Available
online: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs279/en/
2. Blood Facts and Statistics, American Red Cross, 2016. Available
online: http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-facts-and-statistics
3. Blood, organ and tissue donation -The need of blood donation in Canada, Available
online: http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/diseases-conditions-maladies-affections/donation-
contribution-eng.php
4. Blood App, American Red Cross, 2016. Available
online: http://www.redcrossblood.org/bloodapp
5. Blood Donor Finder, 2016 Google. Available
online: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Neologix.BloodDonorFinder&hl=en
6. Rick Borup. An Introduction to Ruby and Rails. Southwest Fox conference in Gilbert, Arizona
in October, 2010:1-50.
7. Devise by Plataformatec, 2017 GitHub, Inc., available
online: https://github.com/plataformatec/devise
8. public_activity, 2017 GitHub, Inc., available online: https://github.com/chaps-
io/public_activity#first-time-setup
9. jquery.timepicker, 2017 GitHub, Inc., available online: https://github.com/cover/jquery-
timepicker-rails
10. Therubyracer. Available online: http://www.rubydoc.info/gems/therubyrace
11. Wiki ruby-pg. Available online: https://bitbucket.org/ged/ruby-pg/wiki/Home
12. Nifty Generators, 2017 GitHub, Inc., available online: https://github.com/ryanb/nifty-
generators
13. Coffee-Rails. Available online: http://www.rubydoc.info/gems/coffee-rails/4.2.1
14. Rack, a modular Ruby webserver interface, 2017 GitHub, Inc., available
online: https://github.com/rack/rack
15. RAKE – Ruby Make. Available online: http://docs.seattlerb.org/rake/
16. Ainapure BS, Jadhav SS. Object Oriented Modeling & Design. Technical Publications,
2008;3:3-74. [Google Scholar]
17. Goldman M. Iron status in Canadian Blood Services donors. Ottawa: Canadian Blood
Services, 2014. [Google Scholar]

Recruitment and retention of blood donors in four

Canadian cities: an analysis of the role of community and
social networks.
Smith A1, Matthews R, Fiddler J.

Author information
1

Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Abstract
BACKGROUND:
This study approaches the decision to donate blood as a dynamic process involving interplay
between blood donors' personal motives, donors' social contexts, and the donor recruitment and
retention activities of blood collection agencies.
STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:
Data were gathered from four blood donation clinics using in-depth interviews with Canadian Blood
Services employees, donors, and nondonors in 25 organizations participating in Life Link, a donor
recruitment program that supports organizations to educate employees about the benefits of blood
donation. Further data were obtained from ethnographic observations of blood collection and donor
recruitment activities.

RESULTS:
Thematic analysis resulted in three umbrella themes: leveraging social networks, embedding the
clinic in the community, and donating blood and social reciprocity. Donor recruitment activities at all
four clinics enhanced awareness of blood donation in the workplace by using experienced donors to
motivate their coworkers in making a first-time donation. Clinic employees reported varying success
in improving awareness of blood donation in the broader community, in part because of varying
employee engagement in community-wide activities and celebrations. Altruistic motives were
mentioned by experienced donors, who also identified a desire to reciprocate to their community as
another strong motive.

CONCLUSION:
This study contextualizes donor recruitment and retention as involving activities that tie blood
donation to meaningful aspects of donors' social networks and community. The findings point to the
need for further analyses of the institutional dimensions of blood donation to develop effective
strategies beyond appeals to altruism.

© 2013 American Association of Blood Banks.

Welcome to Donor2Donor
Arthaay Foundation created DONOR2DONOR only to ensure technology is used to its
best to serve mankind. It is a state of the art collaboration for a noble cause "blood
donation" with technology. Under this initiative, the technology will be used to find a
blood savior for required blood type within 50 kilometers of current location. This not
only be addressing the emergency but this will also help to reduce the cost of
maintenance and application to bank blood which can only be used for 50 days.

DONOR2DONOR is a mobile application available on Google Play Store and Apple App
store for free download. It’s a NON PROFIT activity purely done to serve and fulfill one
task of tackling maximum emergency situations with minimum infrastructure involved.
Zindagi wala app
Our finest offering to run this initiative successfully is D2D –Zindagi Wala App, a
smartphone application, which runs primarily to find a blood contributor with the desired
hemoglobin group type within the periphery of 50 Kms from the current location of the
donee adhering to the World Health Organization (WHO) blood transfusion guidelines
as well as National Blood Policy of India.

This application has been devised keeping in mind the utility it will serve for being user-
friendly, easily accessible and foremost, to connect people from each gender and age
group (above 18 years) to voluntarily participate in saving the life via. blood contribution
and to not only meet the national demands of our country but is making large in all other
countries as well. We are not just seeking a national coverage but it is going to extend
to the globe and help citizens globally. . Through this application, a portal is created
where the blood donee or the needy one can reach out to the blood donor through
Donor’s ID and ensures the privacy of the donor so no personal details will be
disclosed. With our noble vision and fuller dedication, we are engaged to spread
awareness about the insufficient supply and non-availability of the blood to the needy
ones.

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