IoT & long-range radio (LoRa) based air quality sensing through hyper-automation to manage critical temperature-reducing blood and plasma product wastages

Abstract

Background: Each year, about 7 lakh units of blood and its components are estimated to be wasted in India before being used. Due to a communication gap between blood banks, donors, regulators, hospitals, and recipients, blood is wasted in India. Blood loss could significantly negatively influence the nation's healthcare system. A blood bank only accepts a minimal amount of unavoidably outdated blood and its constituent parts due to the internal obligation to maintain blood supplies and the regularly shifting demands on the inventory. Most blood banks' operations, including regulating the Refrigerator's temperature and contents, are done by hand. Observing temperature changes before they endanger the supply is possible if the storage temperature is continuously tracked in real time.

The Need: Patients may also require blood transfusions if they have cancer, sickle cell illness, anaemia, bleeding problems, or sickle cell anaemia. A cancer patient requires at least 100 units of blood. Given the ongoing need for blood products and the frequently unforeseen demands placed on the inventory, the blood bank accepts minimal inevitable blood and component ageing. Collecting 500–1000 units/bags of blood in a blood camp is acceptable and manageable; the blood may then be distributed to those in need via blood banks or centralized blood repositories. Blood is spread by blood banks to each hospital ward, expecting to be transfused within 30 minutes. The RefrigeratorRefrigerator must have a suitable temperature alarm and maintain a temperature range of +2 C to +6 C. Even though some blood loss cannot be prevented, IoT solutions will assist in reducing the amount of lost blood.

Aim: To control the critical temperatures of the blood bank by hyper-automation using IoT-based air quality sensors in the blood bank.

Method: In this paper, we practically observe, analyze, and demonstrate how to control the critical temperatures of Hospital Blood Bank (HBB) and its wastage management system with the help of a Long-Range Radio (LoRa) based air quality sensor which works on internet of things (IoT) application connected to a no code low code secure cloud platform with dashboard, text messages, LoRa alarm units, excel data analysis and reports.

Findings: Using real-time communication and temperature monitoring, reducing Blood wastage in Hospitals is possible. Compared to Manual temperature monitoring, IoT temperature monitoring through hyper-automation leads to less wastage of blood and blood products.

Conclusion: LoRa allows for better penetration even in the densest of the buildings in a hospital and can get accurate values of the critical temperature in the freezers. All these proposed systems are together called hyper-automation, and they would assist in preventing blood and its components wastage.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.56238/uniknowindevolp-154