BAGMO: An initiative to provide safe blood to all!

India is said to be one of the developing countries that have been experiencing an acute shortage of blood! The crisis has further aggravated since the onset of COVID-19 with blood donation has been taking a dip since lockdown. The scantiness of blood banks and proper strategies to manage them are some of the major concerns behind blood unapproachability in the rural and inaccessible areas of the nation. Healthcare administration professionals have zeroed in on leveraging cutting-edge technological solutions and innovative ways to meet the need for blood in both urban and remote locations.

BAGMO, a Kerala-based healthcare startup is built to straighten out the blood supply management in the country. BAGMO majorly focuses on mitigating the challenges existing in blood requirement and its attainability, particularly in the remotest areas. A team of clinical engineers, product developers, and public health experts with extensive experience and knowledge are the backbone that supports and fulfills the objectives of BAGMO. By availing modern technology solutions and operations management techniques, they have developed a Blood Bag Monitoring System. Monitoring individual blood bags will help in “vein-to-vein” inventory management, which means tracking and management of blood from donation to transfusion with a high degree of accuracy and reliability. To date, the company has monitored over 40 thousand blood bags, identified 20+ adverse situations, and is on the verge of executing 10+ installations.

This startup has spin-out from BIRAC’s Social Innovation Immersion Program on maternal and child health. BAGMO was one of the twelve startups shortlisted for the fifth edition of the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge (QDIC 2020). The Qualcomm Design in India Challenge is an initiative by Qualcomm started in 2016 that encourages and supports design houses and product companies to design and develop innovative hardware product designs incorporating Qualcomm SoCs platforms and technologies. BAGMO not only received a financial grant of INR 3.2 lakh towards prototyping but also received patent filing incentives of INR 3.2 lakh towards two full utility patent applications.

IIT-Madras alumni, Ashfaq Ashraf, and Anas D are the brains behind BAGMO. This neoteric startup is known to have pioneered a Blood Bank Management System and Cold Chain Monitoring. BAGMO is creating solutions to overcome setbacks during the fragmented blood transfusion service. It has introduced a central monitoring system that can produce a continuous time record of the temperature excursions that each blood storage bag has undergone. The temperature logs can be printed and produced to the blood bank as proof during the return of any blood unit. By making blood available in rural India through its technology, the expert team of BAGMO is looking to empower the current health infrastructure with technology to reduce the number of deaths, especially maternal mortality.

The device is designed to stamp out the non-availability of blood from remote locations and strives to curtail death rates across the nation. Some of the innovations from BAGMO are:

Blood Bag Monitor: The IoT-based blood bank information system keeps a continuous check on the temperature of the blood bags. This decision-supporting technology helps in reducing human effort in maintaining information, retrieval speed and hemovigilance practices.

LoggFi: LoggFi is a digital temperature logger from BAGMO, is a cloud-based portable measuring instrument that autonomously tracks the temperature and location of temperature-sensitive products throughout the cold chain. Recently, the Telangana Government had launched the ‘Medicine from the Sky’ project to deliver medicines and vaccines to rural parts of the state. The project uses drones to deliver medicine, vaccines, and blood samples to remote areas. BAGMO has associated with this project to ensure the quality of the deliverables using its portable temperature logger, LoggFi.

The device uses cellular/Wi-Fi connectivity for continuously sending live data to the cloud. The LoggFi Software helps view and analyze the digital data. If the device goes offline, it stores the live data and uploads them to the cloud when the network resumes. It sends temperature breach alerts to the registered mobile and emails to the authorized persons who then can take corrective measures based on the alarms and avoid damage.

How can BAGMO help in increasing blood availability?

BAGMO assures the quality of blood by tracking blood temperature during storage and logistics. Hence ensuring safety and minimizing wastage. It uses innovative technology to update the inventory of all types of blood. Details of each bag are electronically scanned into the system which enables the doctors to store blood in rural areas. It implements accountability and traceability of blood bags which enables the mother blood bank to take back its unused blood bag within the stipulated time.

Making Headways!

The team got their operations weaving with a small proof of concept that enabled them to bag the Biotech Ignition Grant award of BIRAC. BAGMOused this fund to structure its foundation. The team earned a series of major achievements including securing a grant from BIRAC for conducting pilot studies in Government hospitals, selection to an acceleration program, and equity-based investment by Brinc and IIITMK in 2020. Established in 2017, Bagmo emerged as a shortlisted startup of the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge 2020, with whose support they have groomed further their products.
BAGMO is gearing to expand its customer base and market reach. The company has deployed services for Jubilee Mission Medical College & Research Institute, Thrissur, Kerala:-Rajagiri Hospital, Ernakulam, Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council, Trivandrum, Government of Kerala and General Hospital Aluva, and King George’s Medical University, Lucknow. The ultimate goal of the team is to support the blood supply chain to improve blood availability and delivery to every corner and reduce the amount of blood wastage. The increasing demand for blood during COVID, saw the startup prioritizing its focus on developing COVID vaccine monitoring solutions.

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