Johannesburg - The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) has launched a smart fridge aimed at ensuring that mothers in rural areas receive blood promptly after giving birth.
The fridge, fondly referred to as Bophelo, operates like a vending machine and is being piloted at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Johannesburg, where it is being put to the test.
The smart fridges decrease the risk of transfusing emergency, uncross-matched units to patients with clinically significant red cell antibodies in remote hospitals. Health-care workers are able to gain faster clinical access to compatible units in remote hospitals, increasing patient safety, among other benefits.
The fridge is so easy to use that health-care workers only use a unique code sent to them by SANBS to access cross-matched blood.
[WATCH] Meet Bophelo! Our smart fridge aimed at reducing turnaround times for patients to receive blood. Bophelo is currently being piloted at Rahima Moosa Mother & Child Hospital & will increase traceability, ensuring patients receive the right product. #TrustedToSaveLives pic.twitter.com/0xBLa6JZdd
“Bophelo will improve SANBS’s efficiency, supply reliability, and coverage at hospitals that do not have blood banks on site by monitoring stocks remotely and availing blood timeously,” Ravi Reddy, SANBS CEO, said.
He said Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital was elected for the pilot because of its high demand for blood and proximity to the SANBS head office, which allows for its remote-controlled automated fridge to be monitored.
“The smart fridge is an important technological innovation under SANBS’s iHealth strategy and contributes towards improving accessibility to health care for all and the creation of a sustainable future for the organisation,” Reddy said.
Following the success of the pilot, 10 more smart fridges will be rolled out to other hospitals, to be determined according to each hospital’s needs and where it is located.
“SANBS takes pride in being an integral player in the country’s health-care system as we strive to transform, innovate, and respond with agility to meet the health needs of all patients in need of blood products and services at a world-class level of cost and quality,” Reddy said.
The Star