The clinical use of blood has always been a concern for society. On the one hand, we have seen an upward trend in the clinical use of blood; one the other hand, there is an insufficient supply of blood for clinical use and poor management of blood stock, which results in a waste of blood. Contradictions such as the one above have seriously threatened the safe clinical use of blood among patients and the reservation of blood for emergency use.

To solve these issues, Haier Biomedical launches smart blood network solutions which aim at providing world-leading human-machine-blood interactive experiences, monitoring and tracking the full blood transfusion process vein-to-vein and eliminating emergency waiting time, blood waste and delay of information sharing. Haier blood solutions reinvent the traditional one-way blood donation model and centralized physical flows by introducing a two-way interactive distributed clinical use of blood model, improving the replenishment speed of blood stock and avoiding blood waste through decentralization and co-sharing.

Smart blood network, blood products retrievals time down from 20 mins to 1 min

In June 2018, Haier Biomedical collaborates with the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University in creating the Haier U-blood Ecosystem, which distributes blood products in advance to operation rooms, patient rooms and even ambulances. The blood products retrievals time has been shortened from 20 minutes to less than 1 minutes, saving valuable time for patients. With U-blood technology, the scarce blood resources can be reserved by recycling and re-distributing unused blood products.

According to Sun Bo, director of the Blood Transfusion Department at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, U-blood has decreased the stock of the blood bank by 20%, the number of staff by 65%, the blood contamination rate to nearly 0%, and has increased the blood recycling rate to 100%.

When doctors race against time to save lives, the timely supply of blood with a high matching rate is of equal importance. Haier optimizes blood management and the clinical use of blood with smart IoT models and exerts a positive influence on medical institutions and patients.

  (病区护士实现血液暂存箱床旁1分钟取血).

(One-minute blood product retrievals from a temporary storage cabinet at a patient ward)

Haier automatic blood bank, the smart, automatic and digitized management of blood products storage and retrievals.

In April 2020, Haier Biomedical works with the Qingdao Central Blood Station to upgrade the blood station into a smart blood station. After the upgrade and iteration, blood information can be uploaded to the cloud for real-time co-sharing and the transition from info-info to info-physical item interaction. At the smart blood station, the full-process cold chain and locations management of blood products are now made possible. Institutions with blood demand can connect to the information system of the blood station, advancing the data-sharing era of urban blood networks.

To be specific, the Haier Automatic Blood Bank not only manages blood in a smart way but also tracks all blood products throughout the process of blood use. The previous one-way and isolated blood management has been transformed into an ecosystem, where blood information is exchanged and shared. In the urban blood network, each blood bag is allocated an ID from the start of blood donation, including blood type, temperature and locations etc. This information is automatically read and uploaded to the cloud for full-process vein-to-vein monitoring and tracking.

While ensuring the safety of blood use in cities, automatic blood banks also solve the problem of blood management. Automatic blood banks are connected with blood station management software to make sure blood information is co-shared. Each blood product is automatically located, reviewed, monitored and tracked throughout the full process. In this way, the safety of blood is guaranteed and the efficiency increased.

After a hospital makes a request for blood use, blood station staff can operate on the computer and accurately retrieve the needed blood products with a mechanical arm. Since no human contact is required in the process, both the blood and the operator are protected from contamination. The blood products retrievals and storage efficiency is also increased based on the “first in, first out” principle.

(Automatic blood bank: information management, accurate blood products retrievals, no human presence in the bank)

During the Covid-19 epidemic, automatic blood banks distribute blood products in real-time and eliminate the risk of human infection and blood contamination. Today, Haier Automatic Blood Bank solutions have been implemented in blood stations at Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, Wuxi City, etc.

From the U-blood ecosystem to automatic blood banks, Haier Biomedical keeps iterating smart blood networks, pushing forward the construction of urban blood networks, leading the reform of blood use models, and ensuring the safety of blood use in cities.