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Background: This paper examines the relationship between determinants of blood transfusion sustainability (BTS) that is master production scheduling (MPS) and blood production (BP) of Uganda. The study was founded on four objectives. The study looked at the direct relationship between MPS and the BTS, direct relationship between MPS and BP, direct relationship between BP and BTS. It also assessed how BP mediated the direct relationship between MPS and BTS. The study used a quantitative method.

Methods: A survey questionnaire was administered to collect data from 367 staff of regional blood banks and government university teaching hospital blood banks; and 213 were found to be usable. The main analysis was done using structural equation modeling.

Results: This study found that MPS had a negative and insignificant relationship with the BTS. The study found that relationship between MPS and BP was positive and significant. The study also found that relationship between BP and BTS was positive and significant. The study concluded that the effect of MPS on BTS was fully mediated by BP. It was recommended that blood banks seeking to achieve transfusion sustainability must understand the sector in which they operate. The various stakeholders in the blood supply chain ie blood banks, hospital blood banks, funding agents, ministry of health, must also integrate to enhance the transfusion sustainability. Blood banks performance measures essentially timely delivery was very critical for saving lives of patients in need of blood.

Conclusion: The study has provided a new conceptual framework that investigate the BP mediating effect on the relationship of MPS and BTS, and thus can serve as an incentive for more research to be conducted in this regard of different developing countries. The authors also proposed identifying the effect of other BP factors such as blood donor management and hospital transfusion practices on BTS.

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.

Mumbai needs to be transformed into a world-class city as stated in the 2005–2025 development plan of Municipal Corporation. For this initiative, hospital management information system (HMIS) has to be implemented across 400+ health facilities in the city.

A case study methodology was adopted to study HMIS implementation. Wave 1 of Phase 1 implementation of HMIS is carried out as a pilot project at Film City’s Hospital, Mumbai, which “go-live” on 21st June 2018. The work for hardware and software implementation was awarded to HardSystems and Solutions Limited and SoftSolutions India Private Limited, respectively, through e-tender.

Provision of inadequate quantity of hardware, slowness of network or system, non-satisfactory training after observation confirmation and sign-off process, lack of data entry operators, mismatch in numbering systems in blood bank and many other challenges concerned with the specific departments had become a major impediment in the efforts to maximize number of patients registered into HMIS.

Even after providing many clinical and managerial benefits, being the first cloud-based centrally located HMIS in any of the hospitals in the city, it imposes a major challenge for the management in terms of resistance of employees toward technology and need for the adoption of theoretical models for implementing change for the overall organizational development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other teaching case study is conducted to study the HMIS implementation in large-scale public health-care services. This is a dummy case study for teaching exercises. The identity of the stakeholders, organizations and events has been masked to maintain confidentiality.

Blood donation knowledge of healthy young students is crucial to donate blood voluntarily and regularly in long-term. This study aimed to determine the influencing factors on the blood donation knowledge, to identify gaps of blood donation knowledge and reasons for not donating blood among university and college students in Yangon, Myanmar.

Cross-section survey (May 2019) was conducted in students of Yangon Technological University (YTU) and National Management Degree College (NMDC) with the use of quota and convenience sampling method. The questionnaires covered sociodemographic characteristics, blood donation knowledge and reasons for not donating blood.

Total 320 students (129 males and 191 females) with age of 18 to 23 years old participated. Previous blood donation had statistically significant influence on blood donation knowledge scores (ß = 0.396, p < 0.001). Gaps of knowledge between nondonors and blood donors were recorded, especially in universal recipient blood groups, Rh blood groups, blood donation interval, eligibility criteria, transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs), amount of blood removed in donation, benefits of blood donations and misbelief of infections from blood donation. Top three reasons for not donating blood among nondonors were (1) no opportunity, (2) fear to donate and (3) still underage to donate.

Blood donations programs should extend awareness-raising programs in academic society and population at large. Raising awareness should focus on the knowledge gaps such as donor eligibility, interval of blood donations, TTIs and benefits of donating blood to recipients.

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 objective of this study is to mitigate the risks of a blood shortage. The authors designed two simulation studies to identify the superior methodology that can decrease the impact of a massive national donor shortage.

The simulation designs are triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first simulation examines the company’s choice of strategic partners (regionally and nationally), and the second inspects creating a national coordinated effort to organize a pooled blood inventory that would require blood centers to contribute a small percentage of their monthly donations to become a member.

The results indicate that both methods can significantly manage the risk of stockouts regardless of the availability of safety inventory in a blood center; however, although more effective in reducing the number of shortages per month, creating a national blood pool causes the shortages to be recognized earlier than desired.

The authors contribute to the literature by focusing on the potential risk of blood shortage because it directly impacts healthcare, hospitals’ costs and their ability to provide care. Though a handful of researchers have targeted the study of the blood supply chain, there is not any article that is similar to this study.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute original evidence about the conditions for formal and informal contracts for commodities and labour in the waste economy of a South Indian town.

Field research was exploratory, based on snowball sampling and urban traversing. The analysis follows capital and labour in the sub-circuits of capital generating waste in production, distribution, consumption, the production of labour and the reproduction of society.

Regardless of legal regulation, which is selectively enforced, formal contracts are limited to active inspection regimes; direct transactions with or within the state; and long-distance transactions. Formal labour contracts are least incomplete for state employment, and for relatively scarce skilled labour in the private sector.

The research design does not permit quantified generalisations.

Waste management technology evaluations neglect the social costs of displacing a large informal labour force.

While slowly dissolving occupational barriers of untouchability, the waste economy is a low-status labour absorber of last resort, exit from which is extremely difficult.

The first systematic exploration of formal and informal contracts in an Indian small-town waste economy.

ß-thalassemia is a hereditary disorder due to mutation in the ß-globin gene on chromosome 11. Out of 200 known ß-globin gene chain mutations recognized, it is better to identify the most common mutation in specific regions and ethnicity for cost-effective molecular diagnosis of this disorder. Therefore, this study aims to practice multiplex-amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) PCR on patients with thalassemia in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to investigate the most common mutations in the ß-globin chain gene.

Twenty-two individuals (patients, their parents and non-affected siblings) with signed consent were studied from six consanguineous families of ß-thalassemia. Blood samples were collected for DNA isolation. For the detection of mutations in the ß-globin gene, ARMS-PCR was used. The amplicon was visualized through 2% Agarose Gel.

The most common mutations among different ethnic groups in the study area residents were Fr 8-9 (+G) and IVS 1-5 (G> C). The prominent enhancing factors for ß-thalassemia are inter-family marriages and lack of awareness.

Multiplex ARMS_PCR is the most valuable technique for assessing multiple mutations in a single reaction tube.

Due to extensively found ethnic and regional variations and a high rate of consanguinity, the Pashtun population has a great risk of mutations in their genome. Therefore, ARMS-PCR is a cost-effective mutational diagnostic strategy that can help to control disease burden.

Limited studies using ARMS-PCR for mutational analysis in the ß-globin gene are conducted. This study is unique as it targeted consanguineous families of KP Pakistan.