Patent ID: 8504388
Filing Date: 2013-08-06
Classification: G06Q,G16H

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a blood element inventory exchange system acting as an intermediary between a blood element supplier and a blood element requester to enhance a clinical value of, and to assign to the requester, at least one perishable blood element item, wherein the blood element is defined as a blood unit or cellular components of blood, the method comprising: reserving, by the exchange, a set of perishable blood element items from the supplier predicted, according to a predetermined probability by the exchange, to contain items having an initially unknown desired blood element antigen attribute, wherein: the method further comprising: determining, by a processor, which items of the reserved set of blood element items have the unknown desired blood element antigen attribute by performing a physical test on each item from the reserved set of blood element items by a tester designated by the exchange, to determine which blood element items of the reserved set of blood element items have the desired blood element antigen attribute, defined as desired items, wherein resource costs for performing each blood element antigen test is borne by the exchange, and the desired blood element item's clinical effectiveness is enhanced based on knowing the desired blood element antigen attribute of the desired blood element item; receiving, by the exchange, results from the physical test performed on each blood element item identifying one or more blood element antigen types of the blood element; storing, in a memory using a processor of the inventory exchange system, an indication as to which of the reserved set of blood element items are desired blood element items having the desired blood element antigen, thereby creating a virtual inventory of desired blood element items; unreserving, by the exchange, blood element items determined not to have the desired blood element antigen attribute, wherein the unreserving comprises releasing the exclusive control given to the exchange of the blood element items; receiving and aggregating requests from a plurality of blood element requesters for blood element items having a blood element antigen attribute profile that includes the initially unknown desired blood element antigen attribute, wherein the requests received by the exchange from a plurality of blood element requesters are stored in a request queue in a memory of the exchange and aggregating is performed by the processor; and matching the requests with blood element items in the virtual inventory based on the requested blood element antigen attribute profiles; wherein the matching comprises determining compatibility between a requested blood element antigen profile and a blood element antigen profile in virtual inventory, according to a predefined antigen compatibility criterion.