Optimization of the Blood Bank Management Using a Distributed Web Application

Abstract

A major problem facing blood banks is how to optimally forecast the amount of blood to collect and how to allocate the blood collected to reduce wastage. Currently, each blood bank manages blood allocation manually which lacks the transparency of the blood units available. Further, blood is perishable hence after a certain period blood is no longer safe for consumption. At the same time, the collected blood is not adequate to serve the blood demand. Previous researchers have suggested and developed solutions to address the blood shortage by facilitating more blood donations. However, the issue of forecasting blood order quantity and the efficient use of blood collected has not been addressed which means blood collected is still prone to expiry before usage. This research addresses this problem by developing a web-based solution that uses a stochastic algorithm and FIFO strategy to ensure optimal blood is collected and used before expiry. The web-based solution is developed using distributed technologies that include REST API process requests using the FIFO strategy and MongoDB which is a distributed database that is open source and uses a format compatible with REST. The developed blood bank system was then evaluated and tested in terms of performance to ensure it ensured optimal blood management.