Online blood system to help medics keep track of 20,000 donations

The National Blood Transfusion Service is planning to implement a comprehensive donor management system for blood, tissues and cells.

The system will integrate with the government myHealth portal. The NBTS uses its online system to search for donors based on various criteria such as blood group, specific antigen profiles, location, and availability.

The blood inventory will be used so that the NBTS can include several blood products that can be transformed into secondary derived products, manage plasma for industry and patient use, imported blood units, and have a real-time system that updates the status of blood units and inventory levels.

Donors today are contacted by email or SMS to keep them updated about blood donation drives, inventory levels, and other relevant information. The NBTS can track the donation history of donors, including the date and location of their last donation, their blood type, and the number of donations made.

About 20,000 donations are collected every year, where blood samples are screened, processed and tested so that conforming products are released and distributed for clinical use. The NBTS is currently also doing cornea banking.

The NBTS has plans to expand the tissue portfolio with bone and other tissues.