Pharma labels for blood donations may be changed following news of an invention.
Pharmaceutical labels for tracking donated blood could be revolutionised by a new invention announced this week.
Medical technology company Fenwal and Biolog-id have collaborated to produce Biolog-id RFID, a radio frequency identification mechanism that can be attached to blood as an alternative to barcodes.
The radio waves are able to store and transfer data to readers regarding safety, availability and storage conditions.
It is possible to read multiple amounts of the special printed labels at a time and means mistakes are less likely to be made when giving blood to patients.
Dean Gregory from Fenwal said: "This is an important new tool for transfusion medicine."
According to the NHS Give Blood website, 8,000 units of blood are needed in the UK every day, with type O particularly in demand because it is the most common.
Last year, 2.1 million donations were collected from some 1.6 million donors, although this amounts to only four per cent of the population.
Denny Bros Ltd, 23 November 2011
