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GIS IS IN MY BLOOD!
S.Raghavendran
GIS Analyst
PIXEL INFOTEK PVT. LTD.
# 318, IIIRD Floor Plaza Centre,
# 129 GN Chetty Road, Chennai - 600 006
Tel: +91-44-28276252, Fax: + 91-44-28276252
E-mail: srg_gis@yahoo.com , raghavendran@pixelinfotek.com
Give Me Blood! I Promise You Freedom!! This was the call by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at a rally of Indians in Burma, July 4, 1944 during India's struggle for independence. Now we stand in an IT dominant era with tech savvy society, where most things happen at the click of a mouse. Phone calls to friends and relatives with a great deal of anxiety are quite common during medical emergencies arising out of accidents or illness or other such medical conditions. Any help from unknown quarters comes as a big relief. But one is often caught scrambling during such critical times for much-needed information, the information regarding blood donors. Those looking out for blood donors during such medical emergencies would understand the nightmare of not getting the required information at the appropriate time. Everyday thousands of lives are lost for want of blood at the appropriate time. When lives are at stake, every second counts and words cannot describe the plight of the near and dear ones, running from pillar to post in locating the blood donors. Geography or GIS for that matter has never been so closer offering a helping hand in our day-today life. Though GIS is being applied for logistics in transporting the accident victims to the appropriate hospital from the accident spot, evidences are not available regarding applying GIS for blood donors and receivers. In the recent past, help is available on the net: http://www.indianblooddonors.com a Nagpur-based website founded by Khusroo Poacha, that has information on blood donors across the country.
The objective of this paper is:
The need of blood is great. On any given day in India, an average of 34,000 units of blood are needed to save precious human lives from accident and burns, heart surgery, organ transplants & patients receiving treatment for leukemia, cancer & other diseases (http://www.blooddonations.org). Millions of people owe their lives to people they will never meet - people who donate their blood freely and without any reward. Needless to emphasis on the need to donate blood and to hail the unsung heroes (Blood donors). It is after taking account the need to promote blood donation and related activities, 14 June every year starting 2004, has been selected as World Blood Donor Day by three major organizations working for voluntary non-remunerated blood donation: the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations and the International Society of Blood Transfusion. These organizations have been joined by the World Health Organization (http://www.wbdd.org).
WHY A GIS BASED BLOOD DONOR INFORMATION SYSTEM?
Chennai has a population of 4.2 millions and requires around 2,00,000 units of blood to take care of its needs. Which means that all that we need is 1,00,000 committed people to donate blood twice a year. This seems an attainable target. However, this is far from the actual state of things (The Hindu, April 28,2002). But even assuming that we had this 2,00,000 units of blood donated, at the critical hour when lives are at stake, we often hear of patients succumbing to their injuries, on the operation table, for want of blood. The hospital's blood bank may not be having the required blood and even if it could arrange transfusion, the blood group may not match with that of the patient. If the blood group happens to be of a very rare type, it is needless to imagine the plight of the person in need of blood. The reason being simple: Right information, at the Right time, in the Right form - and GIS could be the possible way!
In such situations, the voluntary blood donors come handy in saving lives. In the absence of a comprehensive out-of-box GIS solution in place and faced with the realities, there can be no doubt on the need for such a GIS based Blood Donor Information System in place. It is in this context that GIS finds importance in not only giving a new dimension with the ability to put geospatial data to evolve a solution to this but also in revolutionizing the way in which such critical needs are managed.
PROOF OF CONCEPT (POC) FOR CHENNAI CITY
This paper is a proof-of-concept for the City of Chennai, to show how GIS can be used to quickly locate the blood donors of the required blood group nearer to a given hospital location on a GIS based map of Chennai City. The proof-of-concept is a GIS map based interface, a linkage of database of the blood donors and the base map of Chennai City, thereby creating a searchable interface for those in search of blood donors. In brevity it is a GIS based Blood Donor Information System (BDIS). It also showcases how clustering techniques can be used along with GIS to reduce the precious time lost in prioritizing which blood donors to contact. Right information, at the Right time, in the Right form.
BASE MAP CREATION
To begin with a 1:25,000 scale TTK map of Chennai City was used for creating the digital base map of the study area, through onscreen digitizing techniques. The point features (Blood Donors) that have been included in the base map have been geopositioned by locating the house number of the blood donor and it position from Naviga Info Map's street atlas for Chennai. This is very much essential for accurately locating the position of blood donors on the base map to the possible extent. The partial list of various features that have been included in the base map are: Roads, Railways, Water Bodies, Railway Stations, Bus Terminus, Hospitals, Educational Institutions, all these along with the location of prospective blood donors. The other base map features are essential, as they will serve as landmarks and as an aid in quickly locating the blood donors at the critical hour.
DATA COLLECTION & SAMPLING
Collection of relevant and accurate data is very essential for building a good database, which is supposed to be the backbone of any DSS (Decision Support System). Data on voluntary blood donors registered within Chennai City has been obtained from http://www.indianblooddonors.com a Nagpur-based website founded by Khusroo Poacha, that has information on blood donors across the country. The following information is available on each blood donor in this BDIS:
GIS ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Any DSS or GIS based information system for that matter revolves around the database. The more comprehensive the database is, more the analysis that can be performed. This being a POC to showcase how GIS can de deployed to save lives at the critical hour by quickly locating the blood donors, simple GIS analysis like thematic maps, spatial buffer analysis etc. are possible to run. A ring buffer of half, one, one half and two km radius around all the hospital available in this base map has been generated and made readily available to quickly ascertain if the blood donor of the required category is available within any of these pre-defined ring buffers. In this way time can be saved in running an extensive spatial query to locate blood donors of a specific type within a specified distance from a given hospital. Thematic maps showing blood donors by blood group is also possible in this BDIS, thereby providing its users the ability to visually identify the type of blood group, without the need to click and get the information. Other than these, it is possible to run queries based on any of the attributes available on the blood donors.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
CONCLUSION
Of what use could be any technology if it cannot reach and benefit the common public suffering in the veritable concrete jungles, the so-called cities and the remote villages of India? It is a pity that technologies such as GIS and many such applications do not see the light of the day, for one reason or the other. For a moment let us close our eyes and imagine the plight of the near and dear ones scrambling for blood, during medical emergencies. Such new concepts definitely need support from all quarters and need to be experimented in practice. A final thought: I am no Netaji, but with such a GIS application in place, I am sure to say "GIS is in my blood…Give me GIS and I promise you blood!"
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author expresses his gratitude to Mr. P V Rai, Managing Director, PIXEL INFOTEK PVT. LTD., who has been a source of encouragement in such activities. The author is thankful to Khusroo Poacha, Founder of http://www.indianblooddonors.com a Nagpur-based website on Blood Donors, without which the application would not have seen the "Light of the Day". Last but not the least the author wishes to remember his tutors at the Division of Urban Systems Development, Anna University, Chennai, for being responsible for his first step into the world of GIS.
REFERENCES
THE HINDU Dt. Sunday, April 28, 2002, "Save a life"
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mag/2002/04/28/stories/2002042800150700.htm
"Give Me Blood, and I Promise you Freedom! -At a rally of Indians in Burma, July 4, 1944"
http://netaji.netfirms.com/netaji/speeches/givemeblood.htm
gauravsurana21@yahoo.com THE HINDU Dt. Monday, July 19,2004, "Blood online"
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2004/07/19/stories/2004071900670100.htm
GIS IS IN MY BLOOD!
S.Raghavendran
GIS Analyst
PIXEL INFOTEK PVT. LTD.
# 318, IIIRD Floor Plaza Centre,
# 129 GN Chetty Road, Chennai - 600 006
Tel: +91-44-28276252, Fax: + 91-44-28276252
E-mail: srg_gis@yahoo.com , raghavendran@pixelinfotek.com
Give Me Blood! I Promise You Freedom!! This was the call by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at a rally of Indians in Burma, July 4, 1944 during India's struggle for independence. Now we stand in an IT dominant era with tech savvy society, where most things happen at the click of a mouse. Phone calls to friends and relatives with a great deal of anxiety are quite common during medical emergencies arising out of accidents or illness or other such medical conditions. Any help from unknown quarters comes as a big relief. But one is often caught scrambling during such critical times for much-needed information, the information regarding blood donors. Those looking out for blood donors during such medical emergencies would understand the nightmare of not getting the required information at the appropriate time. Everyday thousands of lives are lost for want of blood at the appropriate time. When lives are at stake, every second counts and words cannot describe the plight of the near and dear ones, running from pillar to post in locating the blood donors. Geography or GIS for that matter has never been so closer offering a helping hand in our day-today life. Though GIS is being applied for logistics in transporting the accident victims to the appropriate hospital from the accident spot, evidences are not available regarding applying GIS for blood donors and receivers. In the recent past, help is available on the net: http://www.indianblooddonors.com a Nagpur-based website founded by Khusroo Poacha, that has information on blood donors across the country.
The objective of this paper is:
- To create awareness on the need to integrate GIS into the daily lives of the hoi polloi at various levels.
- To show how GIS can effectively be used in a myriad of ways to locate the blood donors quickly at the critical hour, thereby saving valuable human lives.
The need of blood is great. On any given day in India, an average of 34,000 units of blood are needed to save precious human lives from accident and burns, heart surgery, organ transplants & patients receiving treatment for leukemia, cancer & other diseases (http://www.blooddonations.org). Millions of people owe their lives to people they will never meet - people who donate their blood freely and without any reward. Needless to emphasis on the need to donate blood and to hail the unsung heroes (Blood donors). It is after taking account the need to promote blood donation and related activities, 14 June every year starting 2004, has been selected as World Blood Donor Day by three major organizations working for voluntary non-remunerated blood donation: the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations and the International Society of Blood Transfusion. These organizations have been joined by the World Health Organization (http://www.wbdd.org).
WHY A GIS BASED BLOOD DONOR INFORMATION SYSTEM?
Chennai has a population of 4.2 millions and requires around 2,00,000 units of blood to take care of its needs. Which means that all that we need is 1,00,000 committed people to donate blood twice a year. This seems an attainable target. However, this is far from the actual state of things (The Hindu, April 28,2002). But even assuming that we had this 2,00,000 units of blood donated, at the critical hour when lives are at stake, we often hear of patients succumbing to their injuries, on the operation table, for want of blood. The hospital's blood bank may not be having the required blood and even if it could arrange transfusion, the blood group may not match with that of the patient. If the blood group happens to be of a very rare type, it is needless to imagine the plight of the person in need of blood. The reason being simple: Right information, at the Right time, in the Right form - and GIS could be the possible way!
In such situations, the voluntary blood donors come handy in saving lives. In the absence of a comprehensive out-of-box GIS solution in place and faced with the realities, there can be no doubt on the need for such a GIS based Blood Donor Information System in place. It is in this context that GIS finds importance in not only giving a new dimension with the ability to put geospatial data to evolve a solution to this but also in revolutionizing the way in which such critical needs are managed.
PROOF OF CONCEPT (POC) FOR CHENNAI CITY
This paper is a proof-of-concept for the City of Chennai, to show how GIS can be used to quickly locate the blood donors of the required blood group nearer to a given hospital location on a GIS based map of Chennai City. The proof-of-concept is a GIS map based interface, a linkage of database of the blood donors and the base map of Chennai City, thereby creating a searchable interface for those in search of blood donors. In brevity it is a GIS based Blood Donor Information System (BDIS). It also showcases how clustering techniques can be used along with GIS to reduce the precious time lost in prioritizing which blood donors to contact. Right information, at the Right time, in the Right form.
BASE MAP CREATION
To begin with a 1:25,000 scale TTK map of Chennai City was used for creating the digital base map of the study area, through onscreen digitizing techniques. The point features (Blood Donors) that have been included in the base map have been geopositioned by locating the house number of the blood donor and it position from Naviga Info Map's street atlas for Chennai. This is very much essential for accurately locating the position of blood donors on the base map to the possible extent. The partial list of various features that have been included in the base map are: Roads, Railways, Water Bodies, Railway Stations, Bus Terminus, Hospitals, Educational Institutions, all these along with the location of prospective blood donors. The other base map features are essential, as they will serve as landmarks and as an aid in quickly locating the blood donors at the critical hour.
DATA COLLECTION & SAMPLING
Collection of relevant and accurate data is very essential for building a good database, which is supposed to be the backbone of any DSS (Decision Support System). Data on voluntary blood donors registered within Chennai City has been obtained from http://www.indianblooddonors.com a Nagpur-based website founded by Khusroo Poacha, that has information on blood donors across the country. The following information is available on each blood donor in this BDIS:
- Name
- Address
- City
- Place
- Gender
- Age
- Blood Group (With Rh Factor)
- Contact Number and
- Date of last blood donation
GIS ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Any DSS or GIS based information system for that matter revolves around the database. The more comprehensive the database is, more the analysis that can be performed. This being a POC to showcase how GIS can de deployed to save lives at the critical hour by quickly locating the blood donors, simple GIS analysis like thematic maps, spatial buffer analysis etc. are possible to run. A ring buffer of half, one, one half and two km radius around all the hospital available in this base map has been generated and made readily available to quickly ascertain if the blood donor of the required category is available within any of these pre-defined ring buffers. In this way time can be saved in running an extensive spatial query to locate blood donors of a specific type within a specified distance from a given hospital. Thematic maps showing blood donors by blood group is also possible in this BDIS, thereby providing its users the ability to visually identify the type of blood group, without the need to click and get the information. Other than these, it is possible to run queries based on any of the attributes available on the blood donors.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
- The ability of the BDIS built, to respond to a spectrum of queries could be increased by including more number of blood donors as well as attributes not considered in this POC.
- Network analysis can be integrated to use road based route length calculation rather than using the crow-fly distance.
- Web launching of this application.
CONCLUSION
Of what use could be any technology if it cannot reach and benefit the common public suffering in the veritable concrete jungles, the so-called cities and the remote villages of India? It is a pity that technologies such as GIS and many such applications do not see the light of the day, for one reason or the other. For a moment let us close our eyes and imagine the plight of the near and dear ones scrambling for blood, during medical emergencies. Such new concepts definitely need support from all quarters and need to be experimented in practice. A final thought: I am no Netaji, but with such a GIS application in place, I am sure to say "GIS is in my blood…Give me GIS and I promise you blood!"
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author expresses his gratitude to Mr. P V Rai, Managing Director, PIXEL INFOTEK PVT. LTD., who has been a source of encouragement in such activities. The author is thankful to Khusroo Poacha, Founder of http://www.indianblooddonors.com a Nagpur-based website on Blood Donors, without which the application would not have seen the "Light of the Day". Last but not the least the author wishes to remember his tutors at the Division of Urban Systems Development, Anna University, Chennai, for being responsible for his first step into the world of GIS.
REFERENCES
gauravsurana21@yahoo.com