| A novel allocation strategy for blood transfusions: investigating the tradeoff between the age and availability of transfused blood. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 21756261 Owner: NLM Status: Publisher |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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BACKGROUND: Recent studies show that transfusing older blood may lead to increased mortality. This raises the issue of whether transfusing fresher blood can be achieved without jeopardizing blood availability. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We propose a simple family of policies that is defined by a single threshold: rather than transfusing the oldest available blood that is younger than 42 days, we transfuse the oldest blood that is younger than the threshold, and if there is no blood younger than the threshold then we transfuse the youngest blood that is older than the threshold. To assess this policy, we build a simulation model using data from Stanford University Medical Center. We focus on the tradeoff between the mean age of transfused blood and the fraction of transfused blood that is imported. RESULTS: For hospitals in which the local supply is greater than demand, our policy with a threshold of 14 days leads to a decrease of 10 to 20 days in the mean age of transfused blood while increasing the fraction of imported blood to less than 0.005 (i.e., 0.5%). If the health benefits from transfusing fresher blood can be confirmed by randomized clinical trials, then conservative assumptions suggest that this policy could reduce the annual number of transfused patients who die within 1 year by 20,000. CONCLUSION: The proposed allocation policy with a threshold of 14 days could allow many US hospitals to significantly reduce the age of transfused blood, thereby possibly reducing morbidity and mortality, while having a negligible impact on supply chain operations. |
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Authors:
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Michael P Atkinson; Magali J Fontaine; Lawrence T Goodnough; Lawrence M Wein |
Publication Detail:
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Type: JOURNAL ARTICLE Date: 2011-7-14 |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Transfusion Volume: - ISSN: 1537-2995 ISO Abbreviation: - Publication Date: 2011 Jul |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2011-7-15 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 0417360 Medline TA: Transfusion Country: - |
Other Details:
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Languages: ENG Pagination: - Citation Subset: - |
Copyright Information:
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© 2011 American Association of Blood Banks. |
Affiliation:
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From the Operations Research Department, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California; and the Department of Pathology and Medicine and the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, California. |
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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