The American Red Cross has done a great job of producing quality medical and health apps for not only physicians, but also for the public as well. A favorite American Red Cross app of ours is their blood donor app that tells you how many lives your actual donated blood is saving — it even lets you take selfies.
Now, the American Red Cross has made its blood transfusion practice guidelines more readily available by putting them into a mobile app that can be downloaded from Apple’s app store for the iPhone and from Google Play for Android-based phones. This American Red Cross app lets hospital staff members obtain access to a mobile version of the Compendium of Transfusion Practice Guidelines, which is a review of blood usage guidelines published in English in peer-reviewed journals from the Red Cross.
The guidelines include general information on packed red blood cells and utilization guidelines, as well general information and usage recommendations on platelets, plasma, and cryoprecipitated AHF blood components. In addition, the compendium contains a RhIG dose calculator, made available from the College of American Pathologists; appendices; and references.
By way of example, the section on red blood cells contains a description of the component, explaining how much hemoglobin is contained in each unit of RBCs, the collection methodology, processing, approximate iron content, patient selection procedures, how to prepare the component for transfusion, dosing, responses, indications, and contraindications. The section on plasma provides a concise discussion of fresh frozen plasma, Octaplas, plasma cryoprecipitate reduced, and coagulation factor, and explains the various conditions in which plasma and Octaplas should be administered. The transfusion practice guideliens app appendices include published examples of transfusion risks and one on transfusion-transmitted infections.
The American Red Cross app also contains discussions on blood component modification, including leukocyte-reduced components, cytomegalovirus (CMV)-reduced risk components, irradiated components, and washed cellular components. Finally, there is general information about forming a hospital transfusion committee (TC). This section provides an overview of a TC, and covers membership, functions, process, monitors, and committee reports.
The American Red Cross app on transfusion practice guidelines rounds out a valuable suite of applications that the organization has been providing over the years. We recently featured several of The Red Cross’s disaster response and Emergency Preparedness apps.
Transfusion Practice Guidelines (TPG) by American Red Cross
By American Red Cross
Price: Free
