Forecasting demands of blood components based on prediction models

Background

An adequate blood supply is an important guarantee for saving lives and protecting health. In order to manage the blood supply more effectively when the condition of demand and supply are uncertainty, it is very important to forecast the demands of blood resources.

Materials and methods

SARIMAX model and LSTM model were integrated into the prediction system of blood station. The collection and supply data of blood components was directly imported into the forecasting models to achieve automatic data update and model update. The forecasting daily demands of apheresis platelets, washing red blood cells (RBCs), suspended RBCs and plasma were recorded from January to June 2023 and compared with real data.

Results

The prediction models had good forecasting performances. In the goodness of fit results of apheresis platelet model, the maximum value of coefficient of determination (R2) could reach 87.6%, and the minimum value of the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was only 0.0037. The predicted data of washing RBCs could be basically fitted, and the MAPE was 0.0121. For the prediction of suspended RBCs, the R2 was greater than 66%, and the MAPE could be 0.0372. The plasma model generated very high goodness of fit results, with R2 of over 90% and the lowest MAPE of 0.0394.

Conclusion

The forecasting models, which predicts future demands of different blood components based on historical data, can help managers to overcome the challenges of blood stock control more effectively, thereby reducing blood waste and blood shortages.