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If you're aware of the COVID-19 situation in India, you know that there have been a lot of shortages of oxygen, drugs, and blood plasma 
(example: scroll through #sos)
Finding blood plasma donors is a difficult search problem
(example: scroll through #sos)
Finding blood plasma donors is a difficult search problem
You're limited to the set of willing donors who had and recovered from COVID-19 in the last three months and are now healthy enough to donate.
They must have no comorbidities or other conditions.
Donations are local to the city.
Pregnancy makes you permanently ineligible.
They must have no comorbidities or other conditions.
Donations are local to the city.
Pregnancy makes you permanently ineligible.
The incompatibility of blood types further limits options. If your blood group is O-, it is very difficult to discover compatible blood.
; @shruthibadri and I created a tool to search for donors.
We iterated quickly on @replit, @Railway_App and @vercel. As we got responses, we reached out to NGOs and worked with them to get them access to the data. https://twitter.com/itsarnavb/status/1385838815487553536
We iterated quickly on @replit, @Railway_App and @vercel. As we got responses, we reached out to NGOs and worked with them to get them access to the data. https://twitter.com/itsarnavb/status/1385838815487553536
We contact blood banks, NGOs, and hospitals to "own" the responses for a city.
We provide them with an @airtable view of their respective city
They have a responsibility to
→ follow up with potential donors
→ schedule appointments
→ keep us updated.
We provide them with an @airtable view of their respective city
They have a responsibility to
→ follow up with potential donors
→ schedule appointments
→ keep us updated.
We have kept our project low-key until we confirmed closing the loop on some of these donors.
620 responses -> 33 eligible donors -> 4 scheduled appointments
Our NGO friends are working to contact more
This makes us confident about connecting donors to blood banks
620 responses -> 33 eligible donors -> 4 scheduled appointments
Our NGO friends are working to contact more
This makes us confident about connecting donors to blood banks
Even these donations are not certain yet.
The donor's blood will first be tested for the presence of antibodies. Only blood containing valid antibodies will be usable.
The donor's blood will first be tested for the presence of antibodies. Only blood containing valid antibodies will be usable.
We are building our system to be able to support multiple orgs working together without getting in each others way or calling donors repeatedly without context.
It's a distributed CRM of sorts
It's a distributed CRM of sorts
Here's how you can help:
Share the form with people you know.
Send it to people who have recently recovered from COVID. This is a game of numbers. A small fraction of people who see this are eligible. http://helpfindplasma.org
Share the form with people you know.
Send it to people who have recently recovered from COVID. This is a game of numbers. A small fraction of people who see this are eligible. http://helpfindplasma.org
If you are or know credible organizations that can collect plasma donations in any major Indian city, please reach out!
