In Sweden, donors get more than free juice and cookies when they give blood — they get a text alerting them when their donation has been transfused into someone in need. Shadi Jawhari, a 30-year-old blood donor from Stockholm, remembers the joy he felt when he received an SMS that his donation had been used. “It made me feel important. It really lets you know that you participated in saving someone else’s life. What could be more motivating than that?” That’s exactly the response the Stockholm blood service was hoping for when it launched the pioneering initiative three years ago in an effort to raise blood donation awareness in a country where about five per cent of the population (410,000 people) are registered donors. First, an automated text service thanks donors for their contribution, then a text is sent each time their donation is used to treat a patient. “We are always looking for new ways to communicate with the donors. We need to be up-to-date with the current use of media and technology,” says Karolina Blom Wiberg, a communications manager with Blodcentralen Stockholm. “It seems that this campaign makes our donors more loyal. They come back to us to donate again.” This effort to connect with donors is very much aligned with what the Canadian Blood Services and many other blood systems around the world aspire to, making blood donation contemporary and relevant, says Mark Donnison, vice president donor relations, Canadian Blood Services. “There’s an immediacy emerging in the world now and when we do something, we like to know what happens. So that is part of the work we are focusing on. How do we help connect people with the cause?” Donnison says Canadian Blood Services has already introduced technology to help make donating simpler. Among them, the GiveBlood App. With 140,000 downloads since its launch in 2014, the app allows donors to find a convenient clinic, book, view or cancel an appointment, receive appointment reminders and view donations to date. The enhanced donor portal on blood.ca also encourages the 409,000 active donors to update their profile to indicate how they would like to be contacted — by email, phone or text. “It’s all steeped in this notion of us wanting to build deeper connections with Canadians in general and donors in particular,” says Donnison. “It’s really enabling us to tailor our approach with them so we can respond to their preference.” But will Canadians be able to receive a text about their donation like Swedish donors do? “We love the idea,” says Donnison. “The number of donations coupled with the structure of the health system by province may make it a little more difficult to get down to the specific notification of when a donation was actually used, but we are certainly looking at options that will help us inform donors of their donations.” Source
