Using Interactive Visual Analytics to Optimize Blood Products Inventory at a Blood Bank

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Operations Research
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Blood products are perishable, necessitating effective inventory control to minimize wastage and ensure availability.
• Blood Transfusion Services (BTS) face challenges in optimizing inventory, leading to potential product expiration and reduced accessibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an interactive, web-based dashboard for auditing blood product data.
• To identify and address procedural inefficiencies within BTS by analyzing transactional data and product lifecycles.

Main Methods:

• A blood product lifecycle approach was adopted.
• Advanced visualization techniques were employed to create an interactive dashboard.
• Retrospective transactional data was audited to identify patterns leading to wastage.

Main Results:

• The dashboard enables detailed investigation of blood product lifecycles.
• It facilitates the discovery of procedural inefficiencies by analyzing transition sequences.
• Identified inefficiencies can lead to targeted improvements in BTS operations.

Conclusions:

• The developed dashboard is a valuable tool for BTS to enhance inventory management.
• It empowers staff to proactively identify and rectify issues causing blood product wastage.
• Optimized inventory management through this tool can improve both product availability and reduce wastage rates.