Shortage of blood available for transfusion when a need arises has been a serious problem that gives many in the healthcare sector sleepless nights. But a solution appears to be on the way. J Walter Thomson (JWT) has created an app called Save Your Blood for Bengaluru’s Indian Red Cross Society chapter.
The app could help India solve its perennial blood shortage problem. The country is said to face a blood shortage of 3.1 million units. According to Basrur Rajeev Shetty, the Chairman of Karnataka’s Indian Red Cross Society chapter, it would only take the participation of 1% of Indians in blood donation to fix the country’s blood shortage problem completely.
Once you have the app installed on your smartphone, every blood donation you make will be automatically updated in your blood bank account in the app. Therefore, a donor can accumulate blood in their blood bank account in the same way they would record money in their currency bank account.
When a donor or their family or friend is in need of blood, Red Cross will make sure they have access to the blood they require regardless of the blood group. The app also makes it possible for a donor to transfer blood from their blood bank account in the app to whoever they want to donate to.
According to Senthil Kumar of JWT, Save Your Blood app is primarily targeting the youth. They are already used to dealing with apps in their daily lives and an app that simplifies blood donation should appeal to the youngsters and encourage them to become more active donors to plug the country’s blood shortage problem.
As if to show early access of Save Your Blood app, the news about its impending launch was widely shared on Twitter and other social networks popular among millennials.
Save Your Blood app can be downloaded from iOS and Android app stores. It can also be downloaded for other devices from this website.
