Following the success of Indian Red Cross Society’s mobile application that facilitates creating a personal blood banking account for donors, the State government is considering having a similar app for its 40 blood banks.
Since its launch on April 3 this year, 1,64,358 blood banking accounts have been activated on the app in the State.
Following a demonstration for the Executive Committee of the Karnataka State Blood Transfusion Council, Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Shalini Rajneesh asked officials to study the feasibility of emulating the app for government blood banks.
Changing the way blood banks operate, the app was created to facilitate donors saving their blood in a blood banking account. The blood can be withdrawn whenever required or the ‘blood balance’ can be transferred to friends. Ashok Kumar Shetty, general secretary, Karnataka Chapter of the Indian Red Cross Society, told The Hindu that the idea was to create a human network of blood bankers to counter the annual shortage of 3 million units of blood across India.
The app is available on both iOS and Android platforms. Among other things, it enables users to make appointments round the clock.
“This is part of a larger digital blood banking initiative that the Indian Red Cross Society has rolled out along with J. Walter Thompson (JWT),” Mr. Shetty said.
How it helps
Blood banks depend heavily on replacement donors owing to the lack of voluntary donors. Hence, even if a person finds the required group in a particular bank, it is usually made available only with a replacement. “The app is meant to avoid such hassles,” he said.
Senthil Kumar, chief creative officer, JWT, said the company had received enquiries from several other State governments as well as the Union Health Ministry. “We are hoping to extend it across the country by this year-end,” he said.
However, sources in the Karnataka State Blood Transfusion Council said the app cannot be used in its original form for government blood banks. “The good thing is that donors can create an account and donate at their convenience. But if it has to be emulated, we have to rework it,” a source said.
