It was the annual conference of the Blood Bank Society of Nigeria (BBSN) yesterday, the 13th of August 2015. The event took place at the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR).
The theme was 'Automation and Current Trends in Modern Blood Banking and Diagnosis' presented by Dr. E.O Nwoye. He emphasized that all blood banking processes need to be automated including blood collection, blood handling, testing and issuing.
The peak of the event was when the Chairman of BBSN Dr. Bart Ifionu invited the Rotary club to unveil a product called RedBank. RedBank is a service that enables hospitals and patients locate blood in real time via SMS.
There was a life demo of participants sending an SMS in a particular format to a shortcode and they got responses with the nearest blood banks that had the blood type they searched for.
...timely access to safe blood #redbank @Techpointdotng pic.twitter.com/pBa3Ssmfcw
— Redbank (@redbankng) August 13, 2015
RedBank will go live with real data from September 1, 2015. Each request will be billed at N100. RedBank will launch in Lagos first, with hopes to spread to other states in the nearest future. You can visit redbank.com.ng for more info.