Would you like to see your blood group, important lab results or your last blood donation on your smartphone? Would you like to know when your blood donation was transfused and thus receive a virtual thank you? All this is now possible with the "Statusplus® Blutspende" smartphone app.

In summer 2018, a team from the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) at the University of Kiel took part in the Kiel Healthcare Hackathon with the app idea. Since then, the app has been implemented together with the Institute for Transfusion Medicine at the UKSH, Campus Kiel. The primary goal is to encourage people to donate blood.
"Three percent of all Germans donate blood, although 33 percent could do so. 80 percent of all Germans need to have a blood donation once in their life. "With our app we want to create incentives and provide assistance," explains project leader Kathrin Boersch from Professor Andre Franke's research group at the IKMB. For example, the app offers an advance check that determines whether there are any objections to donating blood. And anyone who wants to do so also receives a message when their own blood donation has been used. "This information makes it clear how important the blood donation is, and at the same time it should motivate people to continue donating," says communication designer Boersch.

Professor Andre Franke is also interested in another aspect: "We can give donors an understanding of the less known blood group systems and report back whether they have a rare blood group and whether the donation would be particularly sought-after". And if they need blood themselves, it is easier to find the right donation.
The development team also includes two computer scientists and a computer engineer. Together they recently founded the company Tricode in order to be able to react flexibly to requests from other blood donor institutions.

The app for Android or iOS can be downloaded here:
https://blutspende.sh/download.html

Report NDR TV, 13.06.2020