Blood Donation Mobile App Assignment Sample

Introduction and Rationale Of Blood Donation Mobile App

In this century, with the rapid increase in digital methods of connectivity, usage of social media across various countries has developed significantly. As observed in social media, there is a sufficient increase in blood donors and blood seekers across various countries. Certain application is presently active in the market that serves the goals for blood donation namely "Blood App" by "Red Cross", and "Blood Donar Finder" by "Neologix". Those apps are built on a certain basis of technologies, including frameworks and languages which are technically used to develop the blood donor web app which is known as the "BLOODR" application. All these technologies are comprised of "Ruby Programming Language", along with Java and PostgreSQL for the use of databases. "Ruby on Rails" is an open source "Web Framework", which makes it easier to develop data-based web apps.

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Discussion of the app

Theme 1: Overview of the conventional methods

Conventionally, when any patient needs blood, that individual used to contact any blood bank or any compatible donor of blood among their relatives or neighbours. However, as said by Adwan et al. (2022), in a limited period, it is very difficult to find a compatible donor; also there is no surety that hospital or blood banks would have stock left or not. Thus the emersion of these technologies served benefits to people all across the world. Social media helps to find blood donors who are compatible and also blood seekers on the same platform. It has been observed that every minute there is a need for blood, and there is an emergency for people across the world, from different countries. However, as said by Ibrahim et al. (2021), the most used mobile application for blood donors and seekers is highly active in countries and places like Greece, Malaysia, China, turkey, etc. In these countries, donors easily find the place where blood can be donated.

In Saudi Arabia, it has been seen by Frimpong et al. (2021), the presence of digital media and mobile apps, serves best as motivators in public areas. The medical students of Qatar have also said that a mobile app for blood donation has not yet been developed in Qatar and the people there face a major issue in finding compatible donors and blood donation venues. Raiding awareness and creating the app soon, is one of their main preferences, where they could locate the compatible donor as well as a seeker. On the other hand, as said by Louci et al. (2022), during the time of the pandemic, several new technologies were adopted in the GCC countries and new mobile apps were developed. Among these, the blood donation mobile app was the one that the people of GCC have adopted. In Abu Dhabi, the government and central regulatory body have developed an application named "UAE Pass", which allowed for the verification and e-signature of documents. On the other hand, Loucif et al. (2022) In Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Health has developed an app named "Wateen" for blood donation. However it has also been reported by El Asmar et al. (2021) that firstly there was no specific usage of the app or any evidence, later, studies were conducted related to the formation of different Questionnaires with the donors and conducted several interviews which were semi-structured and has a qualitative analysis of it. The thematic approach was also taken and data were collected for the quantitative approach. 

Contrary to what the authors said previously in their journals about the presence of the blood donation mobile app in Qatar and GCC countries, Chandler et al. (2021) said that during the pandemic period of Covid-19 when everything was online, a survey was performed in 7 European countries namely UK, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, France, Germany, etc was taken under consideration to know their activity for blood donation, and to do awareness of using any online survey. There was an increase in the regression and the logistic of the survey results. Although, Bloch et al. (2021), it was observed that certain age has problems regarding the usage of social media or digital media sudden change, which emergency cases used to suffer and people use to meet death due to a lack of blood donation.

The youth and middle-aged people became more adaptive to digital media easily as compared to the older ones. Similarly, El Khatib et al. (2022), said that certain campaigns were organized to create awareness among the people who were facing fear to use the apps due to the spread of risk of infections from the donors or maybe they are not compatible, to reduce any such thoughts. It was assured to them that the blood donors were tested and the donors were genuine. The campaigns of El Khatib et al. (2022), continued to make the people of different countries aware of the reduction of fear among them and kept them educated about donors by motivating them about the emergency needs for blood. Thus it can be said that the presence of blood donation apps in different countries and also GCC countries made the life of the people easier, in case of any emergency as compared to the people living in Qatar. In Qatar, they still believe in the traditional, method of registering to their offline blood camps and then providing blood to the seekers in a more tactful way. The belief is that this would reduce the risk of infections and would help to find compatible donors easily. However, Khan et al. (2020) studies have shown that there are increases in death rates in Qatar, than in other countries due to lack of blood, when needed, due to the absence of blood in the blood bank, or certain other issues.

Theme 2: Impacts of blood donation apps in different countries

There are certain benefits in Qatar to having their traditional method of the blood donation process. For this the donors need to first undergo certain medical examinations for general health, checking of hemoglobin, the pressure of blood, and the pulse rate. Certain lab tests and screening methods were performed for the infectious disease namely- Hepatitis C, B, malaria, HIV, and diseases like HTLV. On the contrary, Greve et al. (2020) said that there are more benefits to the usage of digital media for blood donation, rather than using the traditional method. Those apps could save time around more than 15 minutes when a donor donates using "Rapid Pass", which is an Electronic Questionnaire, which cuts down the waiting time for a donor need not to wait in the queue at the donation center. The blood which is collected in the donor camp is further put in ice in the center. Thus, as per Almalki et al. (2021), it has been marked significant in this digital era, to develop the blood donation app, for which the initiatives are primarily taken step by step in certain institutions by the adoption of certain software, for the proper functioning of the app, and allowing the people in Qatar to advance by adopting the technology further. 

As said by Alessa et al. (2022), in GCC countries, in the study of the mobile app "Wateen", it was found that a total of around "401 donors" completed the questions that were provided and developed in the app, among them the percentage that was male was "53.7%". Most people found this app to be easily accessible and of greater benefit for navigation and finding compatible donors. However, as mentioned by Greve et al. (2020), it was also observed that older aged people found this app to be less efficient as compared to the youth ones. The main benefits that were identified by the users or respondents by using the questionnaire included the potential encouragement to the donors and the improvement in communication. The total interview was done among 12 healthcare professionals. Mostly, Alzoubi et al. (2021), has shared their view as the app was easy to use and it was acceptable highly. They said that the usage of this app led to an increase in awareness among the donors, it served to be a bridge between the health professionals and the donors, which made the blood donation process easier and smoother. It was suggested to increase the use of the accessibility, efficiency, and awareness of this app among the people in the countries. 

Theme 3: Positive sides of the app

As discussed previously, in the 7 European countries that were chosen for the study by Chandler et al. (2021), the results for the study showed that out of a total of 7122 people who took part in the survey, around 1205 rating to "(16.9%)" "Blood donors" were identified; around "(33.8%)" were donors among them during the first few months of the pandemic period. It was observed that half of the total donors donated blood less than a normal percentage, and the rest majority were not even aware of the Covid-19 antibodies present in their bodies. Although as said by Greve et al. (2020), people's risk for injection was seen to be lower in the respondents, people which a high risk of injection were much lesser to donate around the value of "(p=0.006)". On the contrary Almalki et al. (2021) said that by maintaining the Covid-19 guidelines, the donors Alessa et al. (2022) should not have donated blood not knowing about the infections and the antibodies present in their bodies. However, there was no such relative effect or worst effect after the study in different countries. It showed that the blood donating app helped them to find the donors easily and provided the authenticity of the donors, having their records and compatibility. 

Conclusion 

It is a social responsibility for the citizens to organize certain blood donation programs, where the donors would willingly donate blood with the help of an app. There would be an authorized donor at the center, who would register in the app and keep his or her account in the app, as per the significant innovation according to the research. As said by Bloch et al. (2021) the apps and the system guaranteed the authenticity and the protection of the recipient, and maintain the privacy of the donor with the use of certain decisions as per the J48 tree algorithm as implemented in "WEKA". The user QUSH et al. (2019) who is authorized would look for donors in the locality or any particular area and then would notify and call them for further reference. The application that was launched for blood donation purpose was checked and was open for rectification or modification as per the review provided by the customers or the donors. Those apps removed the barriers to blood donations. These apps are made with high accuracy and efficiency which ensures that the donor provides the blood to the exact seeker with matching compatibility to avoid any kind of mishappenings. The model of the app was made to make it user-friendly to every people who could download it and would maintain the account. 

A New app which was discovered and developed as discussed by Bloch et al. (2021), would break the business chains of blood donation, and all the politics that are present in society, and it would help the poor to get blood at their emergency free of cost. This project had shown fruitful results and would help the services and the progress in the improvement of the traditional and user-friendly method of the blood donation procedure. Certain startup projects by Hakami et al. (2021) would help NGOs and different other sectors to improve their services and would help in the set up of such digital apps which would help people to reach their necessities and would fulfill their needs in seconds. Such user-friendly apps could be accessed from any location, in their locality or distance. Having the donor's records could be checked further with the help of these apps which would help people to understand better about their donors and track the donors according to the provided information. As a future scope, it could be said that the use of these mobile apps proved to be beneficial to society, and further, it would help to make changes in the digital era globally. 

References

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