Using Interactive Visual Analytics to Optimize in Real-Time Blood Products Inventory at a Blood Bank

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Information Technology in Medicine
• Blood Transfusion Services

Background:

• Blood products are perishable, necessitating efficient inventory control to minimize waste and ensure availability.
• Current inventory management practices often struggle with balancing low wastage rates and high product availability.
• Optimizing blood product inventory is crucial for effective blood transfusion services.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and develop an interactive, real-time, web-based dashboard for monitoring blood product inventory.
• To improve the efficiency of blood transfusion services by reducing wastage and enhancing product availability.
• To provide blood transfusion staff with tools for better inventory oversight and unit management.

Main Methods:

• Utilized advanced visualization techniques to create a real-time dashboard.
• Integrated transactional data analysis for near-real-time monitoring of blood unit inventory and transactions.
• Developed a web-based platform for interactive data exploration and management.

Main Results:

• The dashboard enables near-real-time monitoring of blood product inventory and transactions.
• Blood transfusion staff can efficiently locate specific units and track their lifecycle.
• Facilitates inter-facility transfers to proactively minimize product expiration.

Conclusions:

• The developed dashboard is an effective tool for optimizing blood product inventory management.
• Implementation can lead to significant reductions in blood product wastage.
• Improved inventory visibility and management enhance the availability of essential blood products.