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E-registry of blood donors in the UAE developed

Diplomat with the Indian Consulate in Dubai is set to unveil the portal at the mission’s grand celebration of the International Yoga Day.

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Dubai - A diplomat with the Indian Consulate in Dubai has developed a free Web portal for blood donors in the UAE.

Dr Tiju Thomas, consul economic and education, who practised medicine prior to switching his career, is set to unveil the portal at the mission’s grand celebration of the International Yoga Day at Al Wasl Club on June 21.

Any eligible donor in the UAE can register with the portal blooddonors.ae.

There are many people who donate blood individually or through their companies or community groups in the UAE. “But, we don’t have a nationwide, comprehensive list of donors,” said Dr Thomas.

The idea of creating the online registry came to his mind when he visited Latifa Hospital a couple of years ago. “They said there was a shortage of blood especially for negative groups and particularly during summer and Ramadan. As a doctor, I had seen the crisis of blood shortage in many places. I donated blood that day itself and this thought came to my mind, why not have a donors’ registry to make them easily accessible?”

The site is an attempt to list all the regular donors and all others who are willing to donate blood so as to make donor searching easier.

“Whoever requires blood, hospitals or patients’ relatives, can search for suitable donors and contact them immediately,” he explained to Khaleej Times.

Name, age, blood group, last donated date, mobile number of donors and their emirate will be listed.

The site has an emirate-wise blood group search facility, and carries the details of all blood donation centres in the UAE. “This way, the nearest donors can be contacted. There is also the facility for companies and community groups to list people under them separately and their moderators can coordinate with those donors. This grants them autonomy to retain their identity and an easy management option.”

Different tabs on the site also explain topics like why donate blood, who can donate, types and benefits of donation, uses of donated blood, history and the actual process of donation, and blood groups and compatibility.

The site carries articles and videos on blood donations and blood matching. There is a game also to understand blood matching in an easy and more interesting way.

The motto of the portal is ‘Blood Should Circulate’ and it promotes the slogan ‘You don’t have to be a doctor to save lives-just donate blood: It is simple, safe and saves lives’.

The UAE has already been honoured by the WHO for being among the top five countries with the best blood transfusion services. Dr Thomas hopes that his portal will one day become the biggest repository of UAE blood donors on the Web.

“The Indian community has the largest number of blood donors in the UAE. I would like this to be considered as a gift of the Indian community to the UAE community ... We have a huge database, which will be added soon. I will consider my whole work rewarded if at least one person’s life can be saved through this,” said Dr Thomas, urging donors with rare groups to be more forthcoming to register with the site.

sajila@khaleejtimes.com

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