Bengaluru: Indian Red Cross Society has launched a new app on blood banking that aims to address the issue of finding blood during emergencies and encourage more people to donate blood.
With the new app, launched in association with advertising agency J Walter Thompson, Red Cross Society hopes to reach out to digital savvy public. “The Indian Red Cross Society has already established blood banks across the country. With the digital blood banking concept and the launch of the app, the entire process of blood deposit, withdrawal and transfer will be extremely useful to today’s digital savvy public. We have come up with this public service initiative to offer a solution to finding blood donors at the time of emergency,” said S, Ashok Kumar Shetty, General Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society, Karnataka State Branch.
The app will enable people to deposit blood on a regular basis by opening a Blood Banking Account at any Red Cross affiliated Blood Bank. A unique account number will be assigned to each individual to help monitor the account through the app.
The app will record all the required information, track the account and provide timely reminders on when the next savings is due. The blood can also be transferred to others and the app will let users or the account holders know how much blood is available in the account. In addition, it will allow blood bank account holders to efficiently keep track of the entire blood deposit cycle on the digital platform.
Blood ‘saving’, not donation
The Chief Creative Officer of J. Walter Thompson, Senthil Kumar, said, “One of the biggest barriers to blood donation is the word ‘donation’. Most people have second thoughts when it comes to blood donation and nearly 90 per cent have never donated blood in their lives.”
Hence his team decided a unique way to break that barrier. “We decided to change the language and build in self-interest into this cause. We replaced the word ‘donation’ with ‘saving’ and ‘banking’ and created the app that helps you save blood into your own unique account.”
