Where Blood is an SMS Away

Donating blood is a noble sacrifice that helps in saving thousands of lives
at zero cost. Many people, however, often find themselves in a fix when an
urgent request for blood bounces back from the hospital blood bank, saying that
the bank is temporarily out of stock of that particular group.

But in Kerala, people are no longer concerned about the possibility of such a
sticky situation, as they are able to quickly find matching blood in their
vicinity by simply sending an SMS.

They can send a request containing data about their location and the required
blood group to a particular mobile number (9496007007), and the data of all
listed donors in the said locality with their phone numbers will hit their
message box in no time.

This idea is a brainchild of Deepesh George, MD and the owner of a start-up,
Market Solutions, the creators of local search platform ypkerala.com. He says,
"This move is part of our ypkerala initiative. It is an example of how IT can be
harnessed to help even those people with very little or no computer knowledge.
People in many villages of Kerala are not computer literates. We are taking IT
to them for a noble cause."

The company is currently running a campaign which encourages contribution of
blood by asking people to SMS their blood groups and area pin code to the above
mentioned number to get registered in a database which can then be accessed by
the needy.

The company is also in talks with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to
form a partnership where the latters blood bank database will be integrated
with that of ypkerala.com to extend the reach and feasibility of the service in
the state.

Founded on February 14, 2007, Market Solutions came into limelight when it
launched ypkerala.com. The idea was conceived of as a platform which offers all
information about Kerala ranging from hotels to hospitals and administrative
offices. George is also in the process making of a professionals database to
address the demand for manpower in Kerala.

To be a blood donor, the SMS format is DonateBlood GroupPin Code. For sending
a blood request, it is: BloodGroup (eg O+ or O-)Pin Code. The service is
available only for people in Kerala.

Saheer Karimbayil/CIOL

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