Blood Inventory Submission System (BLISS™)

The Joint Medical Asset Repository (JMAR) is being successfully used to track medical supplies in near-real-time, saving time, money, and lives. However, assets housed at a temporary emergency-response location, near the battlefield, or at any other location without the proper software installation, could not be tracked using JMAR. In order for JMAR to meet our national needs as a facility for accessing blood and blood product levels throughout the United States and other locations worldwide, a new mechanism must be provided for quickly entering data. ATC-NY and Architecture Technology Corporation have prototyped BLISS, a secure, easy-to-use, web-based utility for entering data into the JMAR database, and viewing that data via various textual and graphical report formats. Using BLISS authorized personnel at any facility with web-access will be able to submit up-to-date blood inventory and shipment information to JMAR's database.

BLISS uses a proven network architecture configuration with readily available COTS hardware, programs, utilities, and open standards. It incorporates security and reliability measures to provide a trustworthy and fault-tolerant system. BLISS will enable not only manual entry of data, but also entry via file-upload and bar code scanning, increasing its versatility and usability. Thus BLISS will be easily integrated with JMAR as well as with other existing systems such as DBSS, mobile DBSS, and BMIS-T. Its component-based design will allow for evolutionary improvements as new features are developed.

BLISS will dramatically improve the utility of JMAR for the Armed Services Blood Program and make it possible to quickly ascertain accurate inventory levels of blood products in a specific area (e.g., Washington, D.C.). When blood is needed somewhere in the field, it will be possible to find nearby locations from which the assets may be quickly shipped. In addition, BLISS will reduce the risk of human error by providing automated methods of data capture.