Cooperative Blood Inventory Ledger (CoBIL): A decentralized decision-making framework for improving blood product management

Abstract

Inefficiencies in blood product management systems, including segmented operations, lack of detailed data sharing, and limited real-time visibility, can often result in significant annual losses in product wastage and postponed medical procedures. Left unaddressed, the negative impact on patient health and healthcare systems can be substantial as blood donations continue to decline. This paper proposes the Cooperative Blood Inventory Ledger (CoBIL), a blockchain and smart-contract enabled system designed to mitigate some of these inefficiencies by increasing cooperation among all echelons of the blood supply chain, without sacrificing entity privacy and competition. The proposed framework facilitates collaborative decision-making among all stakeholders to distribute blood products across healthcare networks and reduce system costs. It also facilitates product redistribution among hospitals and other transfusion points to reduce losses due to expired product or canceled medical procedures due to product shortages. A role-based smart contract is included in the framework to define stakeholder access and manage data exchange. To analyze the feasibility of the proposed framework, we implement a proof of concept on a local machine using Hyperledger fabric’s test network and employ it to simulate transactions required for the inventory operations of a regional blood supply chain.