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Heuristic-based allocation of supply constrained blood platelets in emerging economies

Author

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  • Fredrik Ødegaard

    (Western University)

  • Sudipendra Nath Roy

    (Western University)

Abstract

Platelets are valuable, but highly perishable, blood components used in the treatment of, among others, viral dengue fever, blood-related illness, and post-chemotherapy following cancer. Given the short shelf-life of 3–5 days and a highly volatile supply and demand pattern, platelet inventory allocation is a challenging task. This is especially prevalent in emerging economies where demand variability is more pronounced due to neglected tropical diseases, and a perpetual shortage of supply. The consequences of which have given rise to an illegal ‘red market’. Motivated by experience at a regional hospital in India, we investigate the problem of platelet allocation among three priority-differentiated demand streams. Specifically we consider a central hospital which, in addition to internal emergency and non-emergency requests, faces external demand from local clinics. We analyze the platelet allocation decision from a social planner’s perspective and propose an allocation heuristic based on revenue management (RM) principles. The objective is to maximize total social benefit in a highly supply-constrained environment. Using data from the aforementioned Indian hospital as a case study, we conduct a numerical simulation and sensitivity analysis to evaluate the allocation heuristic. The performance of the RM-based policy is evaluated against the current sequential first come, first serve policy and two fixed proportion-based rationing policies. It is shown that the RM-based policy overall dominates, serves patients with the highest medical urgency better, and can curtail patients’ need to procure platelets from commercial sources.

Suggested Citation

  • Fredrik Ødegaard & Sudipendra Nath Roy, 2021. "Heuristic-based allocation of supply constrained blood platelets in emerging economies," Journal of Heuristics, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 719-745, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:joheur:v:27:y:2021:i:5:d:10.1007_s10732-021-09474-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10732-021-09474-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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