Search results

The purpose of this paper is to provide the foundational economics, both in theory and practice, to describe the current competitive and operational market dynamics of the blood service industry in the United States of America.

The paper applies the dominant firm-competitive fringe model to describe how pricing is determined within the blood service industry, with particular focus on the nonprofit business model. The research also describes the role of government as one of the major determinants of pricing through regulatory demands.

The longstanding, free-market based economic foundations of the blood service industry have proven to be adequate in meeting the blood needs of the United States (US). Though there are clear market inefficiencies associated with the dominant firm model, none of the proposed solutions target the contractual and resulting pricing inefficiencies that persist because of the market structure.

In order to add value to the blood industry professionals, it is imperative to provide the foundational economics driving the current macro-level blood industry of the US.

Blood availability is critical for saving lives in various healthcare services. Ensuring blood availability can only be achieved through efficient management of the blood supply chain (BSC). A key component of the BSC is bloodmobiles, which are responsible for a significant portion of blood donation collections. The most crucial factor affecting the efficacy of bloodmobiles is their location selection. Therefore, detailed decision analyses are essential for the location selection of bloodmobiles. This study proposes a comprehensive approach to bloodmobile location selection for resilient BSCs.

This study provides a novel integration of the spherical fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (SF-AHP) and spherical fuzzy complex proportional assessment (SF-COPRAS) methodologies. In this framework, the criteria are weighted using SF-AHP. The alternatives are then evaluated using SF-COPRAS, employing criteria weights obtained from SF-AHP without defuzzification.

The results show that supply conditions and resilience are the most important criteria for a bloodmobile location selection. Additionally, the validation analyses confirm the stability of the solution.

This study presents several managerial implications that can aid mid-level managers in the BSC during the decision-making process for bloodmobile location selection. The critical factors revealed, along with their importance in choosing bloodmobile locations, serve as a comprehensive guide. Additionally, the framework proposed in this study offers decision-makers (DMs) an effective method for ranking potential bloodmobile locations.

This study presents the first application of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) for bloodmobile location selection. In this manner, several aspects of bloodmobile location selection are considered for the first time in the existing literature. Furthermore, from the methodological aspect, this study provides a novel SF-AHP-integrated SF-COPRAS methodology.

The US platelet supply is almost exclusively dependent on apheresis donors who are “aging out.” As a result, blood centers and hospitals have been experiencing spot shortages and have resorted to transfusing low-dose platelets. This paper explores using whole blood–derived platelets (WB-PLTs) to supplement the apheresis platelet (APH-PLT) supply.

This paper reviews the history leading to the current state of the US platelet supply and includes the impact of recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-mandated bacterial mitigation strategies.

WB-PLTs represent a viable source of platelets that can be used to supplement the APH-PLT supply. Whole blood automation represents a new methodology to more easily prepare WB-PLTs. Advances in donor testing and screening as well as pre-storage leukoreduction have improved the safety of WB-PLTs to the same level as APH-PLTs. Blood services in the US and abroad transfuse WB-PLTs interchangeably in all patient populations.

This paper highlights how the US blood industry is essentially “sole-sourced” in terms of APH-PLTs. In this post-COVID-19 period, when most industries are building redundancies in their supply chains, blood centers should consider WB-PLTs as an additional source of platelets to bolster the US platelet supply.

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of two-phase power law nanofluid on a curved arterial blood flow under the presence of ovelapped stenosis. Over the past couple of decades, the percentage of deaths associated with blood vessel diseases has risen sharply to nearly one third of all fatalities. For vascular disease to be stopped in its tracks, it is essential to understand the vascular geometry and blood flow within the artery. In recent scenarios, because of higher thermal properties and the ability to move across stenosis and tumor cells, nanoparticles are becoming a more common and effective approach in treating cardiovascular diseases and cancer cells.

The present mathematical study investigates the blood flow behavior in the overlapped stenosed curved artery with cylinder shape catheter. The induced magnetic field and entropy generation for blood flow in the presence of a heat source, magnetic field and nanoparticle (Fe₃O₄) have been analyzed numerically. Blood is considered in artery as two-phases: core and plasma region. Power-law fluid has been considered for core region fluid, whereas Newtonian fluid is considered in the plasma region. Strongly implicit Stone’s method has been considered to solve the system of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDE’s) with 10–6 tolerance error.

The influence of various parameters has been discussed graphically. This study concludes that arterial curvature increases the probability of atherosclerosis deposition, while using an external heating source flow temperature and entropy production. In addition, if the thermal treatment procedure is carried out inside a magnetic field, it will aid in controlling blood flow velocity.

The findings of this computational analysis hold great significance for clinical researchers and biologists, as they offer the ability to anticipate the occurrence of endothelial cell injury and plaque accumulation in curved arteries with specific wall shear stress patterns. Consequently, these insights may contribute to the potential alleviation of the severity of these illnesses. Furthermore, the application of nanoparticles and external heat sources in the discipline of blood circulation has potential in the medically healing of illness conditions such as stenosis, cancer cells and muscular discomfort through the usage of beneficial effects.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact and mechanism of WeChat public platforms articles (abbreviated as WPP) on blood donation behavior using data of WPPA and donation behavior data.

This paper uses multiple linear regression methods, web crawlers and natural language processing technology. It first quantifies the impact of WPP published articles on donation behavior. On this basis, it then selects data from the day of article publication to further study the impact of article dissemination on donation behavior from the perspective of reading quantity, and analyzes the influencing factors of article reading quantity.

The results show that on the same day that an article is published, there is an increase of 13.8 and 14.3% in blood donation volume and fan registrations, respectively. The mediating effect exists. However, the day after an article is published, there is no longer any effect on blood donations. With a 1% increase in reading quantity, blood donation volume on the day of article publication increases by 0.13%, and this positive impact is promoted by the quality of the articles. A conc ise articles title and body and rich images help drive reading quantity. Moreover, blood donors prefer to read articles about blood dynamics and donation promotion, while articles about news, announcements and administrative affairs make them less inclined to read.

First, it focuses on WPPA, quantifies the impact of articles on blood donation behavior and analyzes the mechanism. Second, the authors study the impact and timeliness of social media article dissemination to address the insufficiency of existing research. Third, the study provides a scientific basis for the editing and publishing of articles, helping blood banks improve the effectiveness of publicity and recruitment.

LifeBank is primarily focused on tackling the challenge of maternal mortality in Nigeria and other African countries by providing women access to blood, thereby tackling the challenge of gender inequality. The company employed both men and women at its workplace providing equal opportunities for men and women.

Discuss how women entrepreneurs are solving social problems in developing countries using technology and innovation.

Analyze the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in getting the right human capital, raising funds and managing growth for their social business.

The case discusses how social entrepreneur Temie Giwa-Tubosun (Temie) founded LifeBank, a medical distribution company, to provide access to blood, medical oxygen and vaccines to hospitals in Nigeria. The company used technology to provide information to health providers about which blood bank stored the blood type they needed and delivered it quickly and safely to help save lives.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This paper reviews the evidence presented in the HHS report and challenges its characterization of the state of the market. The recent US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report on the blood industry, Adequacy of the National Blood Supply, provides evidence of and acknowledges that the industry has successfully met demand for blood. And yet the tone and takeaway message of the report of the industry is on the verge of collapse.

The approach of this paper is a critical review of the evidence presented in the HHS report as well as other recent analyses of the blood industry.

While acknowledging the successful performance of the industry to date, the HHS report offers hypothetical disaster scenarios and a lack of centralized data as the main causes for concern. These criticisms ignore the satisfactory response of the industry to prior disasters and fail to recognize that centralized information is not necessary for the efficient operation of a decentralized industry.

This paper offers a fresh assessment of a report repeating prior forecasts of doom for an industry which to date has very successfully met the United States' demand for blood.

The aim of this study is to analyze Turkey's blood collection efficiency at the regional level between 2018 and 2021 and discuss managerial implications.

The authors utilize data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the efficiency scores of the 18 regions for which the Turkish Red Crescent is responsible. The data set is obtained from the General Directorate of Blood Services in the Turkish Red Crescent.

The results reveal that the efficient regions over the years did not substantially change, and regions that were consistently efficient for a four-year period are identified. Another finding is that COVID-19 did not affect the blood collection efficiency of the regions. Moreover, the findings illustrate that concentrating on the operations would contribute more to the blood collection efficiency than changing the scale size. Furthermore, the authors observe that the service population is by far the most important variable in determining the efficiency of the regions.

In this study, the authors present a multi-dimensional perspective on the performance evaluation of blood collection operations. In addition, the authors present blood bank managers' feedback on the performance evaluation model, outlining managerial implications. Furthermore, the authors explore the effects of the pandemic on blood collection in Turkey and illustrate the changes in efficiency throughout a distinct period that incorporates the pandemic. The study would provide a guide for blood bank managers to improve the performance of their organizations.

Ineffective management inventory of medical products such as blood and vaccines can create severe repercussions for hospitals, clinics or medical enterprises, such as surgery delays and postponements. Inventory sharing is a form of horizontal collaboration that can provide solutions to key actors of the healthcare supply chain (HSC), yet no prior study reviewed this topic.

This study conducts a systematic literature review of thirty-nine inventory-sharing studies in the context of HSCs published from 2012 until early 2022. The descriptive and thematic analyses include chronological distribution, geographical location, comparison between developed/developing regions, stakeholder and incident analysis.

Thematic analysis classified inventory sharing among five product supply chains (blood, medical supplies, medicines, vaccines and generic medical products). Benefits include shortage reduction, cost minimisation, and wastage mitigation. Barriers include (1) IT infrastructure, (2) social systems, (3) cost and (4) supply chain operations. Perishable inventory policies include Fresher-First (FF), Last-Expire-First-Out (LEFO), First-In-First-Out (FIFO) and First-Expire-First-Out (FEFO). The analysis also showed differences between developed and developing countries. The study identifies several future research opportunities that include (1) product utilisation rate, (2) cost reductions, (3) shortage mitigation and (4) waste reduction.

No prior study has systematically reviewed inventory sharing in HSCs to reveal benefits, barriers, patterns and gaps in the current literature. It makes five propositions and develops a research model to guide future research. The study concludes with theoretical and managerial implications.

Atherosclerosis tends to occur in the distinctive carotid sinus, leading to vascular stenosis and then causing death. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of sinus sizes, positions and hematocrit on blood flow dynamics and heat transfer by different numerical approaches.

The fluid flow and heat transfer in the carotid artery with three different sinus sizes, three different sinus locations and four different hematocrits are studied by both computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and fluid-structure interaction (FSI) methods. An ideal geometric model and temperature-dependent non-Newtonian viscosity are adopted, while the wall heat flux concerning convection, radiation and evaporation is used.

With increasing sinus size, the average velocity and temperature of the blood fluid decrease, and the area of time average wall shear stress (TAWSS)with small values decreases. As the distances between sinuses and bifurcation points increase, the average temperature and the maximum TAWSS decrease. Atherosclerosis is more likely to develop when the sinuses are enlarged, when the sinuses are far from bifurcation points, or when the hematocrit is relatively large or small. The probability of thrombosis forming and developing becomes larger when the sinus becomes larger and the hematocrit is small enough. The movement of the arterial wall obviously reduces the velocity of blood flow, blood temperature and WSS. This study also suggests that the elastic role of arterial walls cannot be ignored.

The hemodynamics of the internal carotid artery sinus in a carotid artery with a bifurcation structure have been investigated thoroughly, on which the impacts of many factors have been considered, including the non-Newtonian behavior of blood and empirical boundary conditions. The results when the FSI is considered and absent are compared.