Develop An Android App For Blood Group Management System

Introduction to the project

Discuss about the Develop an Android App for Blood Group Managment System.

Blood group refers to the tiny particles or components within the blood of any human being that help determine the suitability or compatibility of one’s blood with another. As such it is usually the case when carrying out blood transfusion. These components must, therefore, be studied and grouped appropriately to avoid any mix up whenever emergencies arise [6]

Most hospitals within the United Kingdom have given numerous reports indicating the difficulty they go through when handling emergency cases that require a blood transfusion. So many lives have been lost because of this too [9]. A proper blood group system made available not just to health facilities but also the general public could prove to be a very useful tool in reducing and possibly eliminating such deaths [8].

Objectives of the project

To come up with a creatively designed system to help manage all the blood group types and also be able to store additional information about an individual’s health status even in their phones. Additionally, it aims at enhancing the dispensation of blood transfusion services to the general public in case of any emergencies [11].

Problem statement

This project was enthused by a careful and comprehensive study of the existing healthcare management systems used by all healthcare facilities within the United Kingdom [10]. It became very apparent that there was not a single system employed in the management of patients’ blood group. A study conducted earlier on also revealed that the public has limited knowledge about their blood group types, therefore making this available on their mobile phones would be of great help to them.

Literature review

Blood is conventionally termed as the universal most precious element in saving lives as it saves countless lives across the globe with various conditions. A blood bank refers to a place or a storage facility designed to warehouse blood products and blood. Typically, the word “blood bank” refers to a section of a health care facility laboratory where blood is stored and tested to lessen risks of transfusion-related happenings. Blood bank information systems provide essential functionalities so that individuals can gain quick access to donor records from different countries across the globe. 

A group blood management is one that is designed to help in the proper storage, processing, retrieval and analysis of all information related to a blood storage facility. The system described here is always meant for hospitals and usually not available to the general public to facilitate their management and ease in responding to emergencies [11]. According to the World Health Organization, most blood banks have an inventory management system that is usually restricted to the personnel working within those institutions. Therefore, it creates a huge gap between those who are made in charge of such agencies and those who are meant to use their services. Patients that require quick and emergency blood transfusion usually have difficulty when it comes to getting the right blood type to facilitate this process thus leading to massive loss of lives.

Objectives of the project

Recently, research suggests that there are some existing systems such as the Blood Connect. Blood Connect and E-Blood Bank. Blood Connect was unveiled as a project under NSS IIT Delhi in India on 1^st April 2010 with an apparent objective to solve the problem shortage of blood in India. According to WHO, India faces of three million blood units. It was suggested that such a scenario would be eliminated if two percent of India’s youth donates blood. Therefore, Blood Connect was launched to act as a channel in connecting voluntary donors with needy recipients. Currently, Blood Connect has developed a 360-degree solution to the problem of blood shortage. On the other hand, E-Blood Bank was launched in India primarily to connect blood donors and blood recipients. The application works in such a way that a recipient can locate a matching donor. The application was designed in such a way that push notifications enables informs recipients in need of the location of hospitals in the local area that has a matching blood donor in their blood banks[11].

Making this system simpler and available on any Android-based device will be a bold move towards the dissemination of these services to a phone user in the United Kingdom and the world as a whole.  This system once downloaded and installed by a mobile phone user, will be able to store information about their blood group, the availability of such a blood group and also go ahead to calculate the possible blood groups for their relations with children, parents, and other close relatives. This results in the generation of a tree diagram with clear indication and illustration of the most important health information about these people [12].

This android based system is supposed to carry the following functions:

Facilitate the online movement of blood from one bank to another.

Check and confirm the availability of a particular type of blood group in any medical treatment center in the United Kingdom and the world as a whole.

Relay information about a patient’s blood group and where they can find the most suitable blood type in case of any emergency

Proper record keeping of all medical information related to all possible donors thus making it easy to fast track.

Gaps in literature

In as much as several studies have been conducted in this area, most of these studies relate to causes of the poor blood bank management system (WHO and UNESCO, 2008) where tripling human population strain the few blood storage facilities. Few of these studies major on the lack of scientific information to back the theoretical findings and lack of community awareness particularly in all level of the society on the need to have information related to their blood group at their fingertips [11]. This research proposal, therefore, highlights the need for sampling of all the available blood group management techniques and systems and coming up with a more refined and inclusive system that is not only used by healthcare centers but also by individuals all over the world [14].

Problem statement

Project tools and resources

The completion of this project will require the following tools that will aid in the carrying out of research and information analysis.

Data collection tools such as pens, books, well-equipped library

System development instruments such as coding and programming technology

Web hosting services.

Software development and analysis technique.

Methodology

This project uses the waterfall model of presentation as it requires a full completion of a particular phase or stage before moving to the next level of the project. This model is also the most suitable for this project since this project is very direct and has no uncertainties at all.

The initial stage of the project involves the gathering of all the requirements and tools needed for all the activities.  The second stage includes the design of the whole system that should be used in managing the blood group and how they should be segmented. This stage also involves looking at the hosting and other web services related to this server [16].

An implementation and testing phase then sets in. Here, the blood group management system is put into practice and tested for any loopholes or necessary improvements as required.  Once all the necessary requirements and changes have been made to the system, the whole server can now be moved and deployed to all the centers that require that use it and also to be added to all the android servers so that all users can reach and download them [15]

Because of certain unforeseen circumstances, this system may require maintenance from time to time. Such improvements may include updates of the software and enhancing user experience. The waterfall method is preferred because it is easy and simple to use; ease in managing the system related to the model and also suitable when it comes to handling small projects like this. Also, a number of challenges such as making it difficult to make changes to the system once the testing stage is attained.

[1]”Blood Bank Management System”, Bbmspunjab.gov.in, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://bbmspunjab.gov.in/. [Accessed: 23- Aug- 2016].

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[8]K. KoÅ‚ek, “Application of Android OS as real-time control platform“, automat, vol. 17, no. 2, p. 197, 2013.

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[14]G. Ponnappa, “Project Stakeholder Management”, Project Management Journal, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. e3-e3, 2014.

[13]D. Torres Milano, Android application testing guide. Birmingham, U.K.: Packt Pub., 2011.

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