BloodChain: A Blood Donation Network Managed by Blockchain Technologies

Due to the rapid change of population structure, leading to lower birth rates and quick aging rates, the demand for blood supply is increasing significantly. In most countries, blood quality and origin are managed by blood management information systems, such as national authorities. Nevertheless, the traditional system has limitations in this field, such as a lack of detailed blood information, making it challenging to manage blood quality, supply, and demand. Hence, to solve these issues, this paper proposes a blockchain-based system called BloodChain, an improved system to support blood information management, providing more detailed information about blood, such as blood consumption and disposal. BloodChain exploits private blockchain techniques with a limited number of relatively fast and reliable participants, making them suitable for B2B (Business to Business) transactions. In this paper, we also develop a proposed system based on the architecture of Hyperledger Fabric. The evaluation of BloodChain is performed in several scenarios to prove our proposed model’s effectiveness.

Impact of COVID-19 on Blood Donation and Supply: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study from Saudi Arabia

Background. The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic caused a major impact on blood donation process and supply globally. A lockdown management procedure was launched nationally in Saudi Arabia to manage this global health crisis. The main aim of this study was to determine the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on blood donation services and supply in different regions of Saudi Arabia. Study Design and Methods. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the blood bank centers of 5 major cities including Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Hail, and Jizan in Saudi Arabia. Demographic and blood characteristics were retrieved from the first 6 months of 2019 (January–June) and compared to the same period of 2020. Results. Our findings showed variation in the characteristics of blood donation and supply among the centers surveyed, as some of these centers were adversely affected, while others showed an increase in the availability of blood products during the pandemic. For example, Jeddah’s center was significantly affected by COVID-19 lockdown whereas Hail’s center showed a significant increase in the analyzed characteristics of blood donation services in 2020 compared to 2019. Overall, there was no major difference among the surveyed centers between 2020 and 2019, and this might be due to the effective management of blood supply and transfusion. Discussion. Although blood supply and transfusion practice was slightly affected at various degree among the surveyed centers, the whole process did not show a significant effect on the overall outcome. This is in fact due to the proper preparedness, management of blood requirements and supplies, and efficient response of the surveyed centers in Saudi Arabia.

Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the blood donation and utilization and strategies adopted to combat it in a tertiary care center of Jammu province

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has major implications for blood transfusion. There are uncertain patterns of demand, and transfusion institutions need to plan for reductions in donations and loss of crucial staff because of sickness and public health restrictions. A range of strategies need to be planned to maintain ongoing equitable access to blood for transfusion during the pandemic, in addition to providing new therapies such as convalescent plasma. The main role of transfusion institutions during this period, is the monitoring of supply and demand so that sufficient blood stocks are maintained to support ongoing critical needs. The main aim of our study was to study the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on blood transfusion services (BTS) and to identify the challenges faced by our blood center and mitigation strategies adopted to combat it.Methods: Total number of donations and total number of blood and its components issued were noted from the donor and issue registers respectively, both during the pre-COVID and COVID-19 pandemic and the results were compared thereafter. Various strategies were adopted during the COVID pandemic in order to maintain balance between demand and supply of blood and its products.Results: There has been sudden decrease in the number of blood donations in the month of April 2020 (35%) in the COVID pandemic as compared to pre-COVID time with percentage difference of 65%. This was followed by gradual decrease in the no. of donations in COVID pandemic when compared with donations in the pre-COVID time. The percentage difference in blood donation gradually improved over a period of time from 65% in April 2020 to 7% in April 2021. Similarly, no. of blood units issued also decreased from 1147 in April 2019 to 553 units in April 2020.Conclusions: The BTS need to provide an uninterrupted blood supply, and this stays true even in the face of a pandemic. The plan of action has to be started early so that the supply can be maintained and monitored effectively. Health-care workers being one of the main pillars in the fight against COVID-19 have to be supported and protected.

Effects of Greek Honey and Propolis on Oxidative Stress and Biochemical Parameters in Regular Blood Donors

Background and objectives: Honey products contain a lot of compounds, such as vitamins, enzymes, and minerals, which make honey and its products a great antioxidant with a critical role in health status. It is well accepted that honey and propolis can improve a lot of health problems when they are consumed in certain quantities. The objective of this study is to help regular blood donors improve their health status after donation. Material and methods: Eighty regular blood donor volunteers—30 males aged 19–61 and 30 females aged 21–64—were divided into 4 groups: group A (n = 20) consumed 2 spoons of Greek honey and 1 drop of propolis per day for 1 month, group B (n = 20) consumed 2 spoons of honey per day for 1 month, group C (n = 20) consumed 1 drop of propolis per day, and group D (n = 20) did not consume any Greek honey products. Blood samples were collected from all participants just before the consumption of the products, one month after the consumption, and six months after honey product consumption had ceased. All samples were analyzed for reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipid profiles, and ferritin levels. Results: The ROS were significantly (p < 0.05) lower in groups A, B, and C after the honey product consumption and increased significantly again after six months. No significant differences in lipid profiles were observed. Only triglyceride levels were increased after six months in all groups. On the other hand, ferritin levels were not statistically significantly decreased after six months in groups A and B, while they were increased in group C. Conclusions: In the present study, statistically significant decreases in ROS status was found after a small dose of honey product consumption, indicating a diet with an extra small dose of honey products after blood donation.

Blood Supply Management Amidst COVID -19 Pandemic

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The mandatory lockdown restrictions and curtailment strategies towards mass gatherings imposed by the government amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the organization of the voluntary blood donation camps were suspended and in house donations were limited leading to scarcity of blood With this we intend to assess the effect of this mass lockdown on our blood supply management in four phases [phase-I prior to the outbreak] ,phase-II[during the outbreak], Phase-III: The declining phase [Oct20-Feb21] and Phase IV: The second wave [March21-may21] MATERIALS AND METHOD : This is a retrospective study of twenty months of a blood bank supplying to a 1200 bedded multi-specialty Tertiary Care Academic Hospital in Lucknow. The study was divided into four phases namely: • Phase-I: Pre-pandemic phase [Oct’19 to Feb’20] • Phase-II: The full-blown pandemic phase [Mar 20-Sep 20] • Phase-III: The declining phase [Oct20-Feb21] • Phase IV: The second wave [March21-may21] Details of the blood units collected both in-house as well as in the VBDC’s were used for the study. The date of collection, expiry and date of issue for each packed red blood cell [PRBC] units were noted. The components prepared from the whole blood was also noted. The average In-house donations were tabulated. The various components issued month wise was also noted. The supply of Convalescent plasma in all the three phases was tabulate RESULT: The average whole blood collection pre pandemic was 1103 units (55%), 768units (51%) in pandemic phase, 1219units (61%) in declining phase and only 692units (21%) in second wave of the pandemic. In Phase I 27 VBDC collected 1153 units (58%) and in Phase III 8 VBDC collected 236units(12%) Due to restrictions in mass gatherings and lockdown enforced, the whole blood collections from Phase II and Phase IV was 93units (6.5%) and 76units (2.2%) only. In Phase I, the average In House Donation was 33.6%, In Phase II it was12%, In Phase III was 5.75% and lastly in Phase IV was 5.4% The PRBC issued on an average in the four phases was 59%, 48%, 55% and 26% respectively. Similarly the FFP issued in Phase I , II, III and IV was 62%,34%,58% and 20%. Lastly the RDP issued was 15%, 13%, 19% and 4.5% in all the various phases. CONCLUSION: Our study concluded that COVID 19 pandemic had a negative impact on total number of In-house donations, voluntary blood donation camps, blood stock inventory and transfusion recipients along with taking a major toll on health and safety of our blood bank staff as well. With little insight of the disease and everyday learning, by motivating more voluntary donors and health care workers the efficient chain of blood supply and demand can be maintained as the virus is to stay with us for a long time.

Retinal fundus photographs capture hemoglobin loss after blood donation

Recently it was shown that blood hemoglobin concentration could be predicted from retinal fundus photographs by deep learning models. However, it is unclear whether the models were quantifying current blood hemoglobin level, or estimating based on subjects' pretest probability of having anemia. Here, we conducted an observational study with 14 volunteers who donated blood at an on site blood drive held by the local blood center (ie, at which time approximately 10% of their blood was removed). When the deep learning model was applied to retinal fundus photographs taken before and after blood donation, it detected a decrease in blood hemoglobin concentration within each subject at 2-3 days after donation, suggesting that the model was quantifying subacute hemoglobin changes instead of predicting subjects' risk. Additional randomized or controlled studies can further validate this finding.