Case Study
South Texas Blood and Tissue Center / Texas Cord Blood Bank
Key Business Challenge
Umbilical cord blood, which is rich in stem cells, is being used as a treatment option to treating leukemia, lymphoma and other blood disorders. The Texas Cord Blood Bank collects, processes and stores Umbilical cord blood units (CBU) from voluntary donors following the birth of the healthy baby. Through cooperative efforts with the National Marrow Donor Program the Texas Cord Blood Bank provides the CBUs to patients who are found to be a match.
The process of collecting the cord blood requires the staff in the delivery room to have specific knowledge; Texas Cord Blood Bank needed a competency assessment method to ensure this knowledge is in place. In addition, Texas Cord Blood Bank needed the details of the medical staff and their assessment results stored in an indexed, searchable database for administrative purposes while still maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of the stored data.
Background
Texas Cord Blood Bank, a division of South Texas Blood and Tissue Center (STBTC), was created to collect and distribute umbilical cord blood. This blood is rich in stem cells and is used to treat certain types of cancers and other life-threatening illnesses. Unlike traditional collection methods, umbilical cord blood is obtained using non-invasive procedures, with strict regulation of this process. TCBB tasked Denim Group to add features and functionality to a basic web page that would provide training and assessment to physicians and other healthcare providers and assess the staff in an approved collection process while at the same time collecting secure data to a database.
Denim Group Solution
Using Microsoft’s .NET framework and C# programming language, Denim Group designed and built a customizable training and testing application. This application, based on SQL Server 2000, allows system administrators to easily and quickly modify all content and images in the certification program. A custom interface was implemented using ASP.NET. Data security issues were addressed using the .NET framework cryptography APIs as well as the Windows platform Data Protection APIs (DPAPIs). Once the platform was implemented and deployed to Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Texas Cord Blood Bank was able to efficiently administer Web-enabled training and testing for all of its potential collectors.
ROI Value Statement
Texas Cord Blood Bank received a flexible and powerful training, testing, and certification application that streamlined the application and approval process for its customers. The custom, intuitive interface and the ease of implementing the training and certification of cord blood collectors enable a larger pool of approved collectors to increase the supply of life-saving cord blood.