Computing for Good: Web technology to solve human problems

saw the initial Web interface in action, staff with the Zambia National Blood Transfusion Service realized they could use it for much more than quarterly data reports to CDC. "They realized instantly it would be good for actually managing the blood supply through real-time data collection," Vempala says.

Regional and national NBTS directors typically start fielding phone calls late in the day from hospitals and remote blood centers that are asking for blood. To make those decisions, they have relied on a purely mental picture of the available blood supplies nationwide, of demand trends and historical data, and transport availability. The Web-monitoring tool would give them current, accurate, consistent data on blood inventories. They started asking the Georgia Tech team for more data fields, and for a flock of summary and analytical reports, including trend analysis and regional data comparisons.

That led to a new database design to make for much more flexible data analysis and reporting.

But network connections were highly problematic: some sites had none, others were dependent on low bandwidth dialup or satellite links. "One blood center had all the computing equipment but no Internet access," Osuntogun says. "Data was transferred via a flash drive handed to a visiting driver." That "connection" took a week. There was no fiber connection in Zambia to the outside world; the data was carried on satellites. "In some cases, the [network] roundtrip for a request was 5 seconds," says Thomas. "That could make downloading a Web page very painful."

But the team also found that computing facilities at all levels were fairly advanced. The most common browser was a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer as the browser. The Web application was redesigned with extensive use of advanced Ajax function calls. That meant the initial page could load quickly, and users could begin working, while the function calls pulled down additional elements in the background, to be available when needed.

The redesign: keeping it flexible

The redesign also added the ability for each office to customize selected parts of the application to meet local requirements for data collection and reporting. Some sites collected weekly data on blood collections but monthly data on distribution, for example. The new design also let users delegate different roles and responsibilities to different users in the reporting chain.

"It was an 'ah-ha' moment," recalls Thomas. "We'd been working with the CDC in Atlanta, with specific goals in mind. But the CDC weren't the people actually using the application. In Zambia, we met people who would use it day in and day out. That changed our perspective."

Osuntogun and Thomas are hoping to improve the application by adding forecasting capabilities that can factor in a range of variables, including the increased difficulty and time for blood transport during the rainy season.

On Jan. 1, ministries of health in 14 African nations, from Botswana to Zambia, will start using the Web-based tracking application. Osuntogun and Thomas have met with officials of the United Nation's World Health Organization, after some WHO staff saw their project presentation at the American Association of Blood Banks conference in Montreal. WHO is weighing the use of the application for worldwide reporting on blood safety.