Collection and distribution of human blood

EVERY now and then, I get calls from friends and friends of friends, and even from complete strangers who ask for my help in getting supplies of human blood that are needed for surgeries.

That is not something that I usually do, but since the requests are usually urgent and would involve life and death situations, I always try to help by contacting friends in the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) and the Philippine Blood Center (PBC).

The fact that people come to me for help is a sign, I think that there is a flaw in the system of collecting and distributing human blood. Otherwise, there is no need to contact people like me when blood is needed, because the system could work by itself without any human intervention.

Maybe there is even a system, but people do not really know how to make use of it, perhaps due to lack of information.

Perhaps, some hospitals are not too quick in informing the families of patients that human blood is actually available from PRC and PBC, but of course it has to be requested.

I think one problem now is that some hospitals actually require the families of patients to look for blood on their own, instead of them taking the initiative to request these from PRC or PBC. I think that the long-term solution to this problem is to enable all hospitals to have their own onpremise blood banks.

If they have that, they can just tap PRC or PBC as backup sources in cases of shortages or emergencies.

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QUICK RESPONSE CODES FOR CONSUMER PACKAGING

It’s a good i dea to require manufacturers and distributors to put markings on their products, so that one way plastic packages could become returnable and refundable.

Aside from that, these could become sortable or easier to sort for recycling or upcycling purposes.

Perhaps a Universal Product Code ( UPC) also known as a bar code would already be sufficient, but nowadays, it seems easier and cheaper to use Quick Response Code (QRC) also known as QR Code instead.

QRC is very easy to generate, and could potentially carry more information compared to UPC, and could even be more adaptable.

The idea to collect a deposit for glass or plastic packaging is not new, because that was the practice returnable containers, before oneway containers became the norm.

Now, William Chua, a Filipino inventor, has proposed deposits even for one-way containers. I said that it is a good idea, but it needs a technology like QRC to make it work.

I know for a fact that in some countries, QRC is already used as a technology to offer refunds for oneway containers. For some reason, the approach was not adopted here.

I think that it still not too late for that, because we could still use both UPC and QRC to implement a container refund program. Although special devices could be used to read both UPC and QRC, any smart phone could also be used, by downloading some apps that are usually free and open source./