AI-Driven Platform to Boost Blood Donation Appointments
Delcon, an Italian company specializing in medical devices and software for the transfusion sector, today announced the launch of OpenChair, a software solution that leverages AI to increase blood donation appointments. The platform sends messages direct to blood donors to encourage appointment bookings. Delcon launched OpenChair at the annual ADRP conference in St. Louis, Missouri.
Developed in collaboration with the international venture studio Co-Created, OpenChair addresses one of the most common challenges in blood donation. Recruiting new donors is slow and costly, making the continuous contribution of frequent donors essential for maintaining sufficient blood reserves year-round. OpenChair aims to engage this group by automatically creating personalized messages designed to capture their interest and encourage them to book another donation appointment.
Several tests with US partners, including Blood Assurance, Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, Impact Life, and Central California Blood Center, have yielded remarkable results. Communications sent by the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center in Texas using OpenChair saw a 24% increase in appointments among inactive donors and a 35% increase in donations from frequent donors compared to traditional methods used during the same period. This could potentially result in tens of thousands of additional donations annually for each center.
Theresa Pina, VP of Operations at Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, commented: “We partnered with OpenChair to pilot a personalized approach to donor communications, including location-based targeting in campaign strategies. The pilot results show we could change how we engage donors to ensure a steady blood supply and make our donor communications more quality than quantity.”
The software works by analyzing donor characteristics, grouping them based on demographic, health, and various other data related to their donation experiences. The system generates personalized messages, refining and adjusting the content based on recipients’ responses and interactions. This allows the system to address hyper-specific needs identified from initial or ongoing data, such as availability and responsiveness to different communication styles. This capability enables blood centers to build a rich, detailed database of their donors over time, facilitating better understanding of their needs and a more effective communication.
“Our platform can truly make a difference in donation volumes,” says Barbara Sala, CEO of Delcon. “With OpenChair, we add a crucial component to our services supporting blood centers, all aimed at streamlining processes through technological innovation and digitalization. Our ecosystem of products addresses various steps across the blood center value chain: it starts with donor recruitment and engagement facilitated by OpenChair, followed by blood collection with our advanced Milano blood collection mixer, and blood components manufacturing with the state-of-the-art Giotto Monza device. All these solutions are unified under a single platform, enabling efficient data collection and integration throughout the entire process.”
Delcon, which currently employs more than 60 people, closed 2023 with a double digit increase on the previous year. Thanks to its data-driven approach, Delcon’s footprint in the American market is increasing, positioning the company as one of the emerging leading suppliers for blood centers in the US. The Milano smart scale, a co-designed project with the New York Blood Center, was developed to facilitate field operators’ work based on their needs. It is now the company’s flagship device. The device won the Compasso d’Oro award in Italy for its design in 2021. Over the past three years, the US market has emerged as a significant contributor to the company’s global revenue stream, accounting for an average of 25% of the blood bank total business.
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