The Gateway

A new module in the Theater Medical Data Store (TMDS) has been released in January 2011 to assist with the tracking and monitoring of blood supply in theater. The blood module is a web-based database that manages all blood products in the operational environment outside of existing garrison programs. Blood products scanned into the system can be tracked throughout the inventory process to a final disposition of either transfused or destroyed.

This is a significant improvement to the process that was previously being used to track blood units in a spreadsheet, often referred to as the Mother of all Spreadsheets. The single report included over 1,000 hyperlinks and each individual blood product’s 13-digit unique ID number had to be manually entered into the spreadsheet with patient transfusion information. After five years of using this labor intensive process, the Armed Services Blood Program (ASBP) moved forward with a project to automate the data, affectionately called the electronic Mother of all Spreadsheets (eMOAS).

The automation of data made possible by the blood module in TMDS increases data integrity and directly contributes to the bottom line efficiency and productivity of blood product management. The eMOAS allows for searching and tracking both blood transfusions and blood donations within minutes, as compared to waiting for hours after putting in requests to the Joint blood program officers who managed the single report.

About 10 percent of TMDS active users are using the blood module. To date, more than 123,776 blood products have been entered into the module and 133,000 blood products have been processed via the module. The capability to scan blood products immediately gives valuable time back to blood program staff who can now focus on getting the products out to the medical units.

Through the automated reporting, the ASBP can determine who received which blood product, and in what amount with the click of a button. This access to blood product disposition data sharpens communication with military medical personnel and improves patient care both in the field and at medical treatment facilities.

Don Dahlheimer, Deputy Director for Information Management, Armed Services Blood Program

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Aaron Harding, Deputy Director for Policy, Armed Services Blood Program, contributed to this blog.