Using interactive visual analytics to optimize in real-time blood products inventory at a blood bank

Abstract

Blood products and their derivatives are perishable commodities that require an efficient inventory management to ensure both a low wastage rate and a high product availability rate. To optimize blood product inventory, blood transfusion services need to reduce wastage by avoiding outdates and improve availability of different blood products. We used advance visualization techniques to design and develop a highly interactive real-time web-based dashboard to monitor the blood product inventory and the on-going blood unit transactions in near-realtime based on analysis of transactional data. Blood transfusion staff use the dashboard to locate units with specific characteristics, investigate the lifecycle of the units, and efficiently transfer units between facilities to minimize outdates. © 2021 European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) and IOS Press.