Blood donors in Sweden get a text message when their blood saves someone's life

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/blood-donors-in-sweden-get-a-text-message-whenever-someone-is-helped-with-their-blood-10310101.html

by hippich • 11 years ago

306 110 11 years ago

independent.co.uk

MichaelCrawford• 11 years ago

My friend Regan Gill once worked for the Seattle blood bank. She said business was always hopping after the bars closed, espcially on friday and saturday nights.

On time a bag of blood broke open while she was carrying a case of blood down a long hallway. It looked just like she'd dragged a stiff down the hall.

anigbrowl2• 11 years ago

What a genius idea to raise awareness. This seems like a no-brainer for blood banks, hospitals, public health and so on.

jacquesm7• 11 years ago

I think it's a terrible idea. That reverse track from specific use of blood to phone number of the source should not even exist.

prebrov• 11 years ago

That probably must exist to track potential problem with donor's blood in case it wasn't spotted

And also, people generally like being appreciated personally. I'd imagine that named donations prevail over anonymous in most cases.

kryptiskt2• 11 years ago

So that if a donor is diagnosed with an infectious disease you have to throw away all blood in the centre? There are good reasons to track the provenance of blood.

Rebelgecko• 11 years ago

Or how about the other way? If you know when your blood is used and where, you might be able to make assumptions about who is getting transfusions. Granted that's probably small potatoes compared to all of the other privacy concerns in health, but hopefully this program is optional for the recipients.

SCAQTony2• 11 years ago

The Gamification of saving lives! fk yeah! - "I AM LEVEL 3, yesssssss." (3-lives saved)

sajal83• 11 years ago

Many places already do that... counting the number of times a person has donated (not actually used) and giving them some status accordingly.

joezydeco• 11 years ago

Except we now live in the Internet age...where nothing happens unless you can post it on Twitter or Facebook.

giarc2• 11 years ago

That's exactly it. I'm proud when I go and donate and I get to show the staff at the end my card that says I've donated 47 times. I spoke with a Canadian Blood Service staff member once and she said that people compete all the time. You can donate plasma (or platelets) every 2 weeks, so people use that to pad their numbers.

cosmolev• 11 years ago

And that's the right place to use it to get people involved. Better than "7 people like your comment", "John and Mary endorsed you", ...

This is really one of a few examples of "hooking" people for good. There is even a book "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" about it: http://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Product...

cmdrfred2• 11 years ago

Genius. Maybe go the same route with organ donation, let you brag about how many people you saved on the way out. "And Joan is survived by two loyal sons as well as two children who formerly had leukemia."

TazeTSchnitzel3• 11 years ago

Achievement: Bronze Blood Donor (10 donations)

Achievement: Super Hero (10 lives saved)

jessriedel4• 11 years ago

I think this is importantly different. What's usually called gamification is when you create a ticker/counter/award and convince a person to pursue that as a goal even though it has no other real-world importance. This basically hi-jacks the natural good feeling people get when they accomplish an intermediate goal (on the way to an intrinsic goal). It's like the fact that I can make up a goal (flicking a folded piece of paper through a gap in a cubicle -- and arbitrary game) and it feels good to accomplish it.

On the other hand, the blood donation text message is connecting the person to the goal they already had: to help others. It makes the satisfaction of this pre-existing goal more salient and unambiguous. I think it's a lot like the theory behind clicker training for animals.

https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/click...

NeutronBoy• 11 years ago

What's usually called gamification is when you create a ticker/counter/award and convince a person to pursue that as a goal even though it has no other real-world importance.

I'm not sure this is right - there are plenty of examples where gamification is being used for real-life tasks. Things like recycling, exercising, dieting, shopping, etc. Look at how many todo list apps give you points for completing tasks.

girvo• 11 years ago

I wish I was allowed to donate blood. This is a great idea, I hope other countries adopt it.

ddorian432• 11 years ago

Why aren't you allowed ?

logicallee2• 11 years ago

it doesn't really matter, does it? I wouldn't ask here, it's not everyone's business.

(not that it implies anything specific, it's just not really strangers' business - OP has detailed profile info up. I would ask in private if you really want to know.)

ptaipale• 11 years ago

In different countries, there are various reasons, some better than others. Chronic illnesses like hepatitis, having had gay sex, having lived in Britain in 1980's. These contribute some risk to donating blood.

DanBC3• 11 years ago

Men who have sex with men; intravenous drug use; are the two big restrictions that are common.

http://www.blood.co.uk/giving-blood/who-cant-give-blood/

akhatri_aus• 11 years ago

One major reason is if you were in the UK for more than 6 months between 1980-1996. You can't donate blood in Australia afaik if this is the case.

This was due to the BSE, 'mad cow disease'

kalleboo• 11 years ago

There are lots of arbitrary rules out there to minimize risk. I lived in Sweden for more than 6 months before 2004 so they deem me a BSE risk. Oddly enough Sweden didn't have any cases of BSE until 2006 so I'm not sure about the logic behind that one.

WizKid• 11 years ago

Same with me. I use to donate blood in Sweden but after moving to the US I'm not allowed anymore

logicallee2• 11 years ago

Life hacks. On a date in Sweden? Arrange your buddy to send you a text message saying you just saved someone's life. Watch jealousy turn to desire when you get a text message (another girl??), and say, "Oh - I just saved someone's life. See?"

I'm just kidding. My real point is that a mailed letter (or email) sounds more appropriate than a text message. But then again maybe not!

spiritplumber2• 11 years ago

Wouldn't work in the US, I find that the social value of having saved someone's life is somewhere between zero and negative, unless that someone belongs to your interlocutor's subculture.

You tell an investor in SF, in passing, "I talked a junkie off the bridge and took her away before the cops showed up, and let her stay at my place for six months until she cleaned up", and they'll think you are mad, not honorable.

(Not a true story; composite of three separate incidents)

imjustsaying• 11 years ago

"I talked a junkie off the bridge and took her away before the cops showed up, and let her stay at my place for six months until she cleaned up"

It's reassuring to know I'm not the only one who got an ex-girlfriend this way.

pavel_lishin4• 11 years ago

I'd probably think both.

jacquesm7• 11 years ago

So, how long until someone figures out that they don't actually need to save someone's life to send a text message? And what about using the blood when someone's life is not saved, does that not warrant a text message?

How come the entities using the blood and/or distributing it have access to the phone numbers of the donors?

Trombone122• 11 years ago

You try turning up at ha hospital with a bag of blood and saying "here's some blood, but I won't say who it's from".

jacquesm7• 11 years ago

I'd hope that would get you arrested in short order and held until you come up with a very good and verifiable explanation about where the blood came from.

Who donated the blood is important at the point of capture, where you want to analyse the blood and make sure that neither the plasma nor the cells carry anything other than benefits to the eventual recipient.

But who exactly sourced the blood should be of no concern to the agency that ends up using it, and if there is a problem the only thing they should have to go back on should be an un-identifiable serial number that they can use to report back to the collection agency to make sure they destroy the rest of the blood from that lot and mark that particular donor as un-acceptable.

What should happen beyond that is up to the local legislation, presumably the donor should be warned and the screening process should be improved so a similar thing will never happen again, if a problem with blood products is only discovered at the time of use then that's a process failure much more than a problem with that blood.

user• 11 years ago

try turning up at ha hospital with a bag of blood

I have Rhnull and that is the only way I would donate my blood, ever. My mom (who also has this type) has been looked down as a emergency bag of blood on a few occasions and living with that is terrible experience.

In fact, I installed tor just to post this.

smoe• 11 years ago

The title is misleading. As I understand it from the text and photo of the sms (i don't speak swedish), messages are sent when the blood is used. It doesn't say whether it saved somebodies life or not.

johansch• 11 years ago

The text message says "Thanks! The blood you donated on January 13, 2015 has now been beneficial for a patent. Best regards, the Blood Centre."

seivan• 11 years ago

I can tell you that there is currently a lack of blood in Sweden, so I am pretty sure your blood will be used.

Hell, today someone threw in a hand grenade in an apartment complex. No worries, there will always be a need of blood. :I

maxerickson• 11 years ago

In the US, the entity that collects the blood can have a lot of requirements to notify the donor about and report infectious disease, so they are required to maintain records about the donors. They also generally happen to be the entity that distributes the blood.

I would guess that the implementation has the hospital passing a list of numbers read from barcodes to the blood center and then the center either sending the messages or passing phone numbers to the county council mentioned in the article.

I think I agree with your reaction though.

phaemon• 11 years ago

There's nothing in the article that says they do. They say they get a message from the blood collection agency when they donate and another when their blood is used.

I imagine it works pretty much as you suggested below: each bag of blood is identified with a serial number, the collection agency is alerted when that bag is used, this triggers a message from them to the donor.

Would you be happy with that?

AriaMinaei4• 11 years ago

This could work not just for donating blood, but for pretty much any kind of service.

Imagine if you could see, in real time, how your job affects other people's lives, even in the most mundane way. It would let you see the value of what you do, and give you a reason to do it better.

fabiandesimone• 11 years ago

I always thought about this about taxes.

If you could choose from a list of projects a la Kickstarter where YOU choose where your taxes go to, I'm sure people would not only feel better about taxes in general but would allow them to get involved in said projects.

danieltillett3• 11 years ago

The problem with this approach is the areas of need rarely aligns with areas of desire. What happens to those areas that need resources that nobody really cares about?

oadam• 11 years ago

Some countries in EU have 2% of income tax support, i.e. If you are a tax payer in Lithuania and would like to support the development of non-profit/school/academy or sport club, you can do so by transferring 2% of your income tax to the administrating enterprise. And you can change/donate it every year.

tomjen36• 11 years ago

Actually I think I could work such that when you are unemployed or getting money from the government coffers you also get a notice with a name and picture of the person who payed tax to give you that. Sorta like "your income this months was made possible by the hard work of $NAME" - would you be more or less inclined to abuse government founds this way?

spacko• 11 years ago

"Congratulations, Herr Schmidt, your 2014 taxes have just been spent on a chandelier for the rebuilt Berlin city palace!"

Trombone122• 11 years ago

I think telemarketers don't need much reminding.

charlesdm• 11 years ago

"How your job affects other people's lives"

You mean, how a software developer might be helping companies be more efficient, meaning they can now lay off people with lower income jobs because their services are no longer required?

I like this idea for blood donations though!

AriaMinaei4• 11 years ago

I'm going to assume that people getting laid off is the fault of software makers and software makers only, for the sake of argument of course.

Even then, it's good to know how your work affects people, whether positive or negative. At least you see the result of your work in the big picture, and have a chance to do something about it.

tomjen36• 11 years ago

That assumes that those jobs would have existed without your software - and that the factory/warehouse wouldn't simply have closed and caused even further job loss.

jessriedel4• 11 years ago

I think it's a very important idea that will be most useful in incentivizing people to produce open content or otherwise donate their time and money. It's the idea behind the new StackExchange user pages:

How many people have you helped?
“People Reached” is a new way to see just how much your efforts here matter. For the first time ever, you can see roughly how many times an actual human being – very likely one looking for help – found your contributions here. Personally, I like to call it the “Saving-the-frigging-world-o-meter”.

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2015/04/two-new-user-pages-one...

This is available crudely for Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pageview_statistics http://stats.grok.se/

I think it should be a very high priority for the project to allow users to quickly and attractively integrate this into their userpage (and by default for new users). Could help reverse the slow atrophy of the wikipedia user base.

AriaMinaei4• 11 years ago

Well, I have an unbaked thought that says assigning numbers to people's contribution to the world is going to create the wrong kind of incentives.

The problem is that it's (probably) impossible to summarize someone's effects on other people into a number. We're seeing that even quantifying school performance ends up being counter-productive.

For me, the ideal is that instead of seeing how many people you've helped, or how much you've helped them, or any other quantified view of your work, you are just somehow able to see the story of how you helped them. Who did you help, in what situation? And it doesn't have to be something big like saving lives. Just, mundane, everyday stuff.

xelfer• 11 years ago

This also recently started happening in Australia, I got a text message 3 weeks ago saying my blood was used in Liverpool hospital. It was pretty fun knowing where it helped someone.

softgrow• 11 years ago

Might work for some people but not for me. I'd start worrying I'm not donating enough. With plasma you can donate every two weeks which is pretty often, I only go once every four weeks. However I liked the chocolates that were handed out at the blood bank around Christmas time last year (Australia). Oh and in case your wondering they used to offer beer in refreshment but that was cut out a couple of years ago. But they do have wifi now :-).

jonwachob91• 11 years ago

Interesting. In the US you can donate plasma twice a calendar week as long 48 hours separates the donations.

I use to do red blood and double red as frequently as a I could, the day I became eligible again was the day I donated. When you do something like that you can't worry if you are donating enough - you know that you are doing everything you are allowed to do.

pavel_lishin4• 11 years ago

My friend, you may be suffering from ALAS.

http://www.davidbrin.com/givingplague.html

4h53n• 11 years ago

In fact, here in Turkey, a similar service is in use for several years now.

notNow• 11 years ago

Hasn't the gamification and the application of Pavlovian behavior online gone already too far?

I mean this trend of employing FB notifications like Dopamine/Serotonin rewarding systems is getting out of hand and we need to address it properly.

qtheninja• 11 years ago

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tomjen36• 11 years ago

Blood donation is not very efficient charity and the service is homophobic and (in the US) nationalistic (no the entirety of Europe doesn't have mad cow disease). Instead of sending these feel good SMS messages they should work on solving those two issues.

icebraining• 11 years ago

So what do you think Sweden should do about the nationalism of the US' blood donation system?

decafbad• 11 years ago

Turkish Red Crescent does that too. It works.

relicscattergun• 11 years ago

Am I the only one who thinks donating blood is a bad idea based on personality of the donor? I know that this article refers to organ transplant, but I also have read articles talking about how blood donations can affect personality:

http://www.medicaldaily.com/can-organ-transplant-change-reci...

gravypod2• 11 years ago

It makes me sad to see people who donate or contribute to charity for popularity. The idea behind giving blood--or other community services--is to help society as a hole, not your ego. Charity should not be flashed like a status symbol.

If a charity is wasting time and money developing systems to stroke your ego, they should just skip the step and sell themselves to Fleshlight. Their time and money should be spent on improving the lives of those in need, not by stroking off some people.

DanBC3• 11 years ago

This is a simple and cheap method to get more people to male the altruistic[1] step of donating blood.

It's not much fun; it's sort of awkward for some people; we could probably do woth more people donating blood.

The blood banks have a choice: spend money on tv ads, or spend money doing this. Why are ads okay and this terrible?

[1] I'm not interested in philosophy of altruism.

gravypod2• 11 years ago

Who said ads are okay? Wasting money that you promise to put towards a goal on something else is, in my mind, wrong.

People already know donating blood is a good and charitable act. We don't need someone to tell us that.

Blood donors in Sweden get a text message when their blood saves someone's life

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