Innovation

Blooders.org has innovated in the blood donation culture:

● First digital platform that connects people in need of blood donations with blood donors in Mexico.

● The app and website allow donors to schedule appointments for donating blood in allied hospitals.

● Makes donation process easier and faster for donors, saving up to 30 minutes.

● Platform that promotes social participation in México.

● Despite existing platforms dedicated to promoting donation, Blooders differentiates by connecting all the stakeholders involved: hospitals, patients, donors and other charities.

Inspiration

The inspiration in the following case has a double origin, on one hand is the technological aspect and, on the other hand, the social one. In the case of the technological aspect everything began when one of the two brothers owners of the platform started to participate in some of the first Startups in Monterrey in 2012. After long hours of working, Javier was able to construct an idea that can be presented in future events and congresses.

On the other hand, Cesar was inspired by a case related to the blood transfusion of a relative. When he was working in college at Monterrey one day this person started to talk about his situation and asked for help because his wife constantly required blood transfusions. He told to Cesar that all his family have donated blood for his wife and it was really difficult to attract new donors. At one point he had to pay to have taxi drivers bring new donors for his wife. He had no idea what to do.

Thanks to this story, Cesar was aware of the stress, the health situation and the lack of blood disposition all around Mexico. Therefore, the combination of these two visions, the possibility to develop business through technology and the lack of blood disposition in Mexico, created Blooders.

Overall impact

Blooders wants to change the culture of blood donation in Mexico, by creating awareness and facilitating the blood donation process. "We aim to save lives by making the process of blood donation easier and faster."

Blooders is currently operating in four Mexican cities; Monterrey, Villahermosa, Mexico City, and Puebla. The goal is to continue expanding to all other states in Mexico and in three years to be in at least three Latin American countries to promote collaboration on blood donation and create awareness in society of the impact blood donation can make in communities.

Blooders.org has formed alliances with more than 20 medical centers in Nuevo León, some of them are Hospital Materno Infantil, Swiss Hospital, Hospital San José, Ginequito, Hospital Regional ISSSTE, Hospitaria, and some public hospitals from Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS).

Up to today Blooders has impacted:

+6,500 blood donors

+2,000 donation process have been completed through Blooders.org, each process impacts 3 lives

+6,000 lives have been impacted/saved

Business benefit

"Donors and people who need blood are not monetized. We generate income through the platform we develop which we implement in hospitals. An input barrier was the implementation of the technology (costs) so we now charge a slight implementation cost, while if processes are managed through the platform, an income is generated. Thus, if many processes are generated the income will be higher. This commits us to actually working with hospitals and not just generating a client-provider relationship."

Cesar Esquivel said: "We are allies of hospitals. We bring the value of speed and ease."

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Social and environmental benefit

Mexico has an average of 1,700,000 annual donations, corresponding to only 1.5% of the 112,000,000 population. According to international indicators we should have 5% of donors, that is, approximately 5,600,000 annual donations to meet our transfusion demands and allow the advance of high-tech medicine.

Cesar explained: “From what we can measure we have benefited more than 6,000 people, we should also consider that people of our own community create campaigns and will donate to these campaigns but as the hospitals are not registered with us, we cannot measure this impact, so we believe our impact has been much greater".

In the Swiss Hospital, there has been a 400% increase in altruistic donations of blood through the use of Blooders platform, just as in the Angeles Hospital an increase of 300% was achieved.

Last semester TEC university students were invited to donate and 218 students attended. To those 218 students, we invite them to donate again through an app and mail and 30% return.

Last year in Villahermosa Tabasco, the Rovirosa Hospital had only four altruistic donors, this year it increased to 52 through a project that we worked together.

Although numbers have increased donations since the launch of Blooders, the founders of Blooders consider the lack of blood donation has to do with education and limited disclosure of the subject. Blooders is creating strategies to promote a greater blood donation culture.

Interview

César Esquivel, Founder