Blood Bank Management

Abstract The purpose of this study was to develop a blood management information system to assist in the management of blood donor records and ease/or control the distribution of blood in various parts of the country basing on the hospital demands. Without quick and timely access to donor records, creating market strategies for blood donation, lobbying and sensitization of blood donors becomes very difficult. The blood management information system offers functionalities to quick access to donor records collected from various parts of the country.
It enables monitoring of the results and performance of the blood donation activity such that relevant and measurable objectives of the organization can be checked. It provides to management timely, confidential and secure medical reports that facilitates planning and decision making and hence improved medical service delivery. The reports generated by the system give answers to most of the challenges management faces as far as blood donor records are concerned. Chapter 1 1. 0 INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Background to the Study
Blood Donor Recruitment (BDR) is the process of drawing blood from a voluntary Blood Donor (BD) for future blood transfusion, Wikipedia (2006). In Uganda, blood collection, safety and management is an activity that is carried out by Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) in partnership with Uganda Blood Transfusion (UBTS). Founded in 1939, URCS is part of the world wide Red Cross Humanitarian Movement whose mission is to mobilize the power of humanity for improving the lives of the vulnerable in Uganda, Muller (2001).

URCS fulfills this mission while adhering to the principles of impartiality, neutrality, independence, unity, universality and voluntary service for the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement. It operates throughout Uganda with 45 branch offices. Besides providing adequate supply of blood for transfusion, URCS is involved in the first aid services, road safety, tracing, disaster mitigation/preparedness, mobilization for routine immunization, HIV homecare, youth empowerment and Community based HealthCare (CBHC).
URCS had a manual system using paper cards to recruit BDs, collect/keep blood donor records and disseminate results to BDs who are scattered throughout the country. The paper card system (PCS) used to specifically capture personal data and medical history of the BDs. This information would be used in identifying/locating existing BDs, carrying out pre- donation counseling and taking blood results. Unauthorized persons however, easily accessed the paper system and hence making it impossible to keep secrecy and confidentiality expected of medical records.
The security of the medical records was also not inadequate as any person could easily access them. Lukande (2003), states that such a system is time consuming, prone to errors of entry and analysis resulting from the fatigue of the users. The PCS at URCS had lead to accumulation of physical paper cards due to increasing number of blood donors, a situation that frustrated the system users because of the delays and at times failure to access historical records. The safe blood policy was lacking at URCS because the PCS could not cater for the key attributes of the policy.
Gerard (2002), states that the main principles upon which the safe blood policy is based on are the informed consent, confidentiality and secrecy of the BDs. The Ethiopian Red Cross Society publication, Development in the 1990 states that information from blood donors should be completely confidential and if this is not assured, names of the blood donors should not be recorded at all and/or an alternative record identification should be used. Full implementation of the safe blood policy has called the use of information technology (IT) in providing working solution to the identified challenges.
The associated problems with the PCS included delays in accessing historical records, inconsistencies and errors in data entry that stem right from acquisition of data from the blood donors because the exercise is of routine nature and very tedious to the system users. The automation of the system using modern IT has improved the quality of service. Secondly, with the use of IT, now relevant and timely blood donor reports can easily be generated and hence facilitating planning and decision-making.
Scolamiero (2000), recommends blood donor services automated information system as a solution to routinely collected, accurate and readily available information in blood transfusion services. It is also important to note that the impact of information technology on organizations is increasing as new technologies evolve and existing ones expand. According to Clifton (1995), nearly all business executives say that information technology is vital to their business and that they use IT extensively.
Certainly business executives main concern is planning, coordination and decision-making, therefore, the role of IT in enhancing management of blood donor records is of major importance. In all, the computerization of blood donor PCS at URCS came at the ripe time given the background to the situation. This is more so because the demand for safe blood in Uganda has increased due to soaring increase in total population. Therefore, modern means to manage the PCS using IT had to take route. 1. 3 General Objective
The main objective of the study was to create electronic blood donor management information system in order to assist in the management of blood donor records, planning and share information in a more confidential, convenient and secure way using modern technology. [pic] 1. 3. 1 Specific Objectives To conduct a study on blood donor management To design an electronic blood donor management system To validate the design using a prototype 1. 4 Scope The study geographically limited itself at the URCS blood donation/collection centers.
It focused more on the acquisition, distribution and management of blood units for BDR activities. The study specially emphasized the creation and implementation of an electronic management information system that automated blood donor data acquisition and dissemination of results. This in turn will ease and speeds up the planning, decision-making process because of the timely, secure, confidential and reliable reports. 1. 5 Significance of the Study This study is important to URCS and the blood donors because it aimed at addressing problems of security, secrecy and confidentiality of blood donor records.
It also strived to check the delays, errors, inconsistencies in medical records and timely access to historical records all of which had far fetched impact on planning and decision-making. The study resulted into the following benefits: It has eased the control and distribution of blood in various parts of the country basing on the hospital demands. URCS can now create market strategies for blood donation, lobbying and sensitization of the blood donors. Automated data acquisition and quick access to medical records by the legal users of the system will be assured. [pic]
It has eased the monitoring of the results and performance of the blood donation activity and hence relevant and measurable objectives of URCS are checked. It will continue to improve on the planning and decision-making process by providing to management timely, secure and confidential medical reports related to blood donation. It will also improve medical service delivery due to timely and easy generation of management reports by the relevant entities. The study will benefit the URCS management, who will find it easy to strategically plan, coordinate and take decisions concerning BDR activities.
URCS counsellors on the other hand will be able to keep confidentiality of the donor’s results and disseminate blood results to donors with ease. Meanwhile that is the case, the automation of the data collection process will simplify the work of the data clerks. Equally important, the blood donormmobilizes will be have strong grounds for laying sensitization strategies between regions thatmyield more blood units and those with less. The study also has formed further environment of knowledge for students who may wish to take research in blood donor management. 2. Blood Donor Systems: Challenges and Successes The blood donation service involve a series of interdependent operations such as donor registration, donor screening/evaluation, blood collection, blood screening, inventory management and blood dissemination. Most of the popular existing blood information systems in the western world today are mainly online systems. The systems interfaces do not meet fully the blood safe policy described in this study and as such not suitable for illiterate population. Most blood donors in Uganda are rural based where online systems ay not be the best. The level of computer literate among the blood donors in Uganda is growing because the majority of them are school students. The main challenge remains customizing interfaces that are suitable for capturing basic donor information. Some of the attributes on the interfaces used in the western world such as state and province are not applicable in Uganda. Tripura blood donor information system is a good example of the blood donorsystem that is not suitable for Uganda. Also some key attributes such as age and sessions in [pic]
Uganda are lacking on most the interfaces viewed. The interfaces also are not user-friendly as there are many links within the system that can easily confuse the system users and hence leading to data entry errors and boredom. At the Macau blood Transfusion Centre, system Integrado de Bancos de Sangue (SIBAS) works as its solution of computerized blood bank information system. SIBAS complies with the client/server infrastructure, as does its client, and provides an integrated environment for those isolated but interdependent operation in the blood center.
With the introduction of the SIBAS the blood service at Macau has been enhance in the following aspect. Operational efficiency- the processing time has been shortened in that blood donors need not fill in many regular items. On the other hand, the steps for donor cards are under full control and hence leading to donor satisfaction and confidence. There is also improved information consistency and validity. The Indian case study of Prathma Blood Center, Gupta (2004), promises insights into the integration of IS/IT in management of blood records.
The Prathma Blood Center is a quest for modernizing blood banking. The entire function from blood donation to its testing and separation, storage, issue and usage have been integrated through a custom designed enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that minimizes human intervention and making it less error prone. The implementation of ERP in blood bank in India has registered many successes in medical data such as security, confidentiality, secrecy and quick retrieval of historical records all of which were challenges at URCS blood center.
However, full automation of all blood donation activities like the case cannot be done in Uganda due to limited resources. It requires transition, as it is resource constraining in terms of IT, other equipments and human resources. 2. 3 Blood Donor Systems: Challenges and Successes The blood donation service involve a series of interdependent operations such as donor registration, donor screening/evaluation, blood collection, blood screening, inventory management and blood dissemination. Most of the popular existing blood information systems in the western world today are mainly online systems.
The systems interfaces do not meet fully the blood safe policy described in this study and as such not suitable for illiterate population. Most blood donors in Uganda are rural based where online systems may not be the best. The level of computer literate among the blood donors in Uganda is growing because the majority of them are school students. The main challenge remains customizing interfaces that are suitable for capturing basic donor information. Some of the attributes on the interfaces used in the western world such as state and province are not applicable in Uganda.
Tripura blood donor information system is a good example of the blood donor system that is not suitable for Uganda. Also some key attributes such as age and sessions in Uganda are lacking on most the interfaces viewed. The interfaces also are not user-friendly as there are many links within the system that can easily confuse the system users and hence leading to data entry errors and boredom. At the Macau blood Transfusion Centre, system Integrado de Bancos de Sangue (SIBAS) works as its solution of computerized blood bank information system.
SIBAS complies with the client/server infrastructure, as does its client, and provides an integrated environment for those isolated but interdependent operation in the blood center. With the introduction of the SIBAS the blood service at Macau has been enhance in the following aspect. Operational efficiency- the processing time has been shortened in that blood donors need not fill in many regular items. On the other hand, the steps for donor cards are under full control and hence leading to donor satisfaction and confidence.
There is also improved information consistency and validity. The Indian case study of Prathma Blood Center, Gupta (2004), promises insights into the integration of IS/IT in management of blood records. The Prathma Blood Center is a quest for modernizing blood banking. The entire function from blood donation to its testing and separation, storage, issue and usage have been integrated through a custom designed enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that minimizes human intervention and making it less error prone.
The implementation of ERP in blood bank in India has registered many successes in medical data such as security, confidentiality, secrecy and quick retrieval of historical records all of which were challenges at URCS blood center. However, full automation of all blood donation activities like the case cannot be done in Uganda due to limited resources. It requires transition, as it is resource constraining in terms of IT, other equipments and human resources. SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN 4. 1 Introduction Following the literature review, background information and correlative knowledge regarding this research project follows.
In the first part of this chapter, the demand and requirements of the proposed system are discussed and analyzed through dataflow diagrams, the entity relations model and the data dictionary. According to this analysis, the specification of the system is defined. This provides the foundation for chapter 5 (Implementation and Testing). This chapter presents the various design techniques and processes available for building web based applications. It explains the design technique chosen, showing its advantages and disadvantages. 4. 2 A different approach for designing web based applications
Traditionally, software has been broadly classified into different categories. Some of these categories include real-time software, personal computer software, artificial intelligence software and business software. Web-based systems and applications (WebApps) such as web sites and information processing applications that reside on the Internet or an intranet, require a somewhat different method of development than these other categories of computer software (Pressman, 2000) [xx]. This is because web based systems involve a mixture of print publishing, software development, marketing, computing, internal communications, external elations, art and technology. WebApps are network intensive,content driven, continuously evolving applications. They usually have a short development time, need strong security measures, and have to be aesthetically pleasing. In addition, the population of users is usually diverse. These factors all make special demands on requirements elicitation and modelling. 4. 3 Requirements and Analysis The requirement analysis stage of a software engineering project involves collecting and analyzing information about the part of the organization that is supported by the application.
This information is then used to identify the users’ requirement of the new system (Conolly et al, 2002) [xx]. Identifying the required functionality of the system is very important as a system with incomplete functionality may lead to it being rejected. A description of the aim of the project is given here along with details of the functional and non-functional requirements for the system. The test sheets for evaluating the completed system are also presented. [pic] 4. 3. 1 Requirements
The requirements of the Web-based management information system are to develop: • a web based front end for entering donated blood details including the donor, his/her blood group, sex, age, and status of the donated blood • a web based front end for searching the information relating to a given donor or a given blood group; • a facility to still enter donor and donated blood information via Endnote and also maintain the Endnote database using those details entered via the web front end and • a facility to produce summary information of donor and donated blood particulars and any other related activities. . 3. 2 Functional Requirements In this research project we aim at developing a system which should improve on the current one with a lot of functionalities and therefore the Major target or goal here is to: • to develop a blood donor database that can support the five above mention sub- databases that is to say; DonorDB, Donation DB, DiseaseDB, Transfusion DB and Statistical DB • to develop a client interface that allows privileged users to carry out tasks such as inserting or modifying and deleting data in the database; to develop a searching functionality in order to allow normal and privileged users to search the details of a given donor, blood group, stakeholder and if necessary a type of disease common which causes one to need the donated blood • to fully integrate the Web-based management information system to the World- Wide-Web and hence allow access from any Internet networked terminal and Web browser around the world; to develop a facility that can export details entered via the web front end to Endnote as well as import and confidential detail from the Endnote Database; • to develop a functionality that produces summary information of required data to enhance decision making; • to embed high security features in the Web DBMS to provide privacy, integrity; • to allow privileged users to maintain the Web-based management information system by adding/deleting particulars, backing-up or resetting the database and extract online summary in the form of histograms for each donor and lists of free-format comments.
Thus a graphical reporting tool should be provided for analyzing the data. • and finally the system should be flexible enough to store data for several years and also be able provide sufficient User and Administration Guides. 4. 3. 3 Non-functional Requirements The system must be developed to suit the particular needs of a user-friendly environment. This means that the system must accommodate a clearly understandable user interface as well as clear online help documentation at any stage of the user interaction with the system.
A fast response time in obtaining and providing information to the system may also prove to be a significant advantage. In addition to these requirements, the system should also embrace the following requirements:- Security: Each user is required to log in. The system should log staff that has been assigned user names and passwords. The system should be designed to make it impossible for anybody to logon without a valid username and password. Data encryption should be employed to keep the user login name and password secret.
Reliability: The system would be used by about 50 staff working at the Red Cross head quarters and also some other many staff in the collaborating clinics and hospitals. The system should have little or no downtime and be able to handle multiple concurrent users. Ease of Use: The general and administrative views should be easy to use and intuitive. Online help and documentation should be provided. Performance: The system should have a quick response time. For the purpose of this research project, this would be defined as less than 5 seconds.
System and Browser compatibility Testing: The system should be accessible on the following browsers – Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. 5+, NetScape Navigator 6. 0+ and Mozilla 1. 3+. System requirements: Red Cross society Uganda has a UNIX server. This system would be designed to run on a minimum hardware configuration of 500MHz x86 machines. Considering the vast hardware available at the society , this would not pose any problems. Server Software: Operating System: Windows XP PHP version: PHP 5. 0+ Web Server: Apache Web Server. 2. 0+ Database: MySQL 4. 01+ [pic] . 4 Access Level Analysis In order to take closer look into what the system should do and how, it was necessary to decompose the system’s functionalities based on the user type and levels of access. The three main user groups and access levels are: • Global User Group (normal access level) • The Red Cross User Group (privileged access level) • The Administration (privileged access level) Therefore, the requirements could be efficiently analyzed depending on the user group and the functionalities they should be allowed to perform. 4. 4. 1 Main System Page (Index)
It is required for the system to provide a Main Page where any Global user (any user within and outside the Red Cross Organization) will be able to access. The main functionality of this page will be to allow any user to search the database by using information such as quantity of donated blood, available blood and the groups, or any other general information which may not be considered confidential. The search capabilities of the main page might not be limited to the exact blood donor, but may for example provide the means for displaying any information that might be relevant but not confidential.
The Main Page should also include a Login facility for any privileged or normal user to be able to have access to more advanced functionalities of the System. 4. 4. 2 The Red Cross User Group When a Red Cross user has successfully logged into the system via the Main Page Login facility, it will be necessary for the system to display a specific menu with all available option that can be carried out. Therefore by taking into account the system requirements, it will be necessary to nclude options such as Enter donor details, Search donor, Use Endnote Facilities, Produce Summary Information as well as an option that will be related to the appropriate User Guide. A Logout option will also be appropriate for the Red Cross user to be able to logout when desired. 4. 4. 3 Entering-Amending Blood donor Details For a user to be able to amend and enter into the system’s database it will be essential to take into account that the blood donor system will be integrated to Endnote. Therefore, it will be essential for the system to provide to the user the exact fields as Endnote does for any particular type of details.
In addition, when a particular of a given donor has successfully been submitted or amended into the database it will be essential for the system to display the appropriate message (i. e. Blood donor successfully entered into database). 4. 4. 4 Searching the Blood Donor Database The Searching Facility for the Red Cross user should not differ from the facility that will be provided on the Main Page of the system for all users. Therefore, the Red Cross user will be able to search any type of information in the database using the same way as specified for the Global User. 4. 4. 5 Producing Summary Information
For this requirement it is essential to firstly understand why and when it will be used and to adjust the functionality to best suit these purposes. In order for the system to efficiently produce summary information it will have to provide a menu providing options such as Produce Annual Report, or Produce General Report etc. 4. 4. 6 Endnote Facilities In order for the system to be effective, it will be necessary for it to be integrated with the Endnote software. Therefore, it will be very significant to accommodate two options that will include Importing blood particulars from Endnote and Exporting blood particulars to Endnote.
How this will be done will mainly rely on taking full advantage of particular Endnote filters that are provided for these reasons. 4. 4. 7 Administrator For maintenance purposes it will be of great significance to include advanced Administrator functionalities that can only be accessed by this particular user group. The most reasonable options for an administrator to perform may include tasks such as deleting donors (should not be provided to the Red Cross user group for security reasons), Backing-up and Restoring the database, Resetting the blood donors database etc.
In addition to these functionalities the administrator may also be asked to perform tasks related to Red Cross or Global user (i. e. Entering new donors, Searching for a given donor or available blood group) and therefore any functionality provided by the system must be included in the administrator capabilities. .5 Task Structure Diagrams For the development of a more consistent and effective system, it was essential to firstly identify which information should be included accomplish this, it was first of great significance to group all the relevant tasks (system functionalities) depending on the users.
The way the systems tasks could be efficiently identified was by using a special technique from the Discovery method called Task Structure Sketching (Simons, 2002). 4. 5. 1 The Red Cross User Red Cross User Functionalities Fig 4. 1: The Red Cros User Task Structure Diagram Insert New Data Edit data Search for Data Produce summary Use Endnote Search for a recipient Search donors Search for disease Export d donations Weekly report Produce annual reports Import donations Search for hospitals Edit clinics Update data Edit donors -recipients Edit diseases Insert new disease Insert recipients Insert donor The Administrator User
Administrator Functionalities Fig 4. 2 The Administrator Task Structure Diagram Red Cross user Functionalities Delete data Backup data Reset database Backup database Restore Database Delete a phased out disease Delete donor Delete recipient The administrator can perform any task that are performed by the Red Cross User 4. 5. 3 The Global User Global User Functionalities Search database Login Search by recipients Search by donors Search y Year Login as Red Cross User Login as Administrator Want to donate blood – 4. 7 Web Engineering Web engineering is the process used to create high quality Web-based systems and applications (WebApps).
Web engineering (WebE) exhibits the fundamental concepts and principles of software engineering by following a disciplined approach to the development of computer-based systems, emphasizing the same technical and management activities (Pressman, 2000) [xx]. The design and production of a software product (such as a web application) involves a set of activities or a software process (Sommerville, 2004) [xx]. A software process model is an abstract representation of a software process. Three generic process models usually adopted in projects are • The waterfall model – This has distinct project phases, which can be easily monitored.
These phases are requirements specification, software design, implementation and testing. • Evolutionary development – An initial system is developed quickly from abstract specifications. This is later refined with the input of the user to produce a system that meets the users needs. It is an iterative model. Two refinements of this approach are the incremental and the spiral models. The incremental model of evolutionary development delivers software in small but usable “increments”, where each increment builds on those that have already been delivered.
The spiral model couples the iterative nature of prototyping with the controlled and systematic aspects of the waterfall model. • Component-based software engineering – This is based on the existence of a large number of reusable components and is best suited in an object-oriented environment. A process model helps address the complexity of software, minimize the risk of project failure, deal with change during the project and help deliver the software quickly. For this project two process models were considered: 1. Spiral model 2. A waterfall model. [pic] 4. A WebE Spiral model The spiral model shown in Fig 4. 4 is suggested by Pressman (2000)[xx]. The process consists of 6 main stages, outlined below: 1. Formulation: This is an activity in which the goals and objectives of the WebApp are identified and the scope for the first increment in the process is established. 2. Planning: This stage estimates overall project cost, evaluates risks associated with the development effort, prepares a detailed development schedule for the initial WebApp increment and defines a more coarsely granulated schedule for subsequent increments. Analysis: This stage is the requirement analysis stage for the WebApp. Technical requirements and content items to be used are identified. Graphic design requirements are also identified. Fig 4. 4: The WebE Spiral Model 4. Engineering: Two parallel set of tasks make up the engineering activity. One set involves content design and production, which is non-technical work. This involves gathering text, graphics, and other content to be integrated into the WebApp. At the same time, a set of technical tasks (Architectural design, Navigation design, and Interface Design) are carried out. . Page generation: This is the construction activity that makes use of automated tools for WebApp creation and the content is joined with the architectural, navigation and interface designs to produce executable Webpages in HTML. 6. Customer Evaluation: During this stage, each increment of the WebEprocess is reviewed. Powell (2002) [xx] presents a waterfall model for web engineering (Fig 5. 2). The advantage of this model is that it helps developers plan most of the work up front. 4. 9 Design Phase The design involves the production of technical and visual prototypes.
This stage has some on-technical aspects such as gathering of web content. Powell (2002)[xx] points out that ontent gathering can be one of the biggest problems in web projects. This clearly is not the ase with this survey application as there is very little content required. For the server side rogramming and other technical aspects of the design emphasis will be laid on such design oncepts and principles as effective modularity (high cohesion and low coupling), nformation hiding and stepwise elaboration. The goal is to make the system easier to adapt, ehance, test and use (Pressman, 2000) [xx]. 4. . 1 Producing HTML There are basically 4 methods of producing HTML – 1. Coding by hand using a simple text editor 2. Translation in which content produced in a tool such as note pad is saved as aHTML document. 3. Using a tagging editor that helps fill in the required tags 4. Using a “What you see is what you get editor” (WYSIWYG) such as MS FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver©. All these methods have their advantages and disadvantages. While coding by hand may be slow and error prone, it does provide great control over markup, as well as help address bugs and new HTML/XHTML elements immediately.
At the extreme, “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editors provide visual representation of a page and require no significant knowledge of HTML or CSS. However hey often generate incorrect or less than optimal markup and tend to encourage fixed size resentations that do not separate the look and the structure (Powell, 2003) [xx]. Putting all hese into consideration, a tagging editor, HTML-kit© was chosen for this work. While tagging editors can be slow and require intimate knowledge of HTML and CSS, they provide agreat deal of control and are a lot faster than hand editing. [pic] 4. 10 Architectural Design
WebApps fall into 4 main structures. They can be linear, grid, hierarchical, or networked (fig 4. 5). In practice most web sites are a combination of some of these structures. Fig. 4-5. Navigational Structures of websites/Web Applications ( Lemay, 2000) Considering the nature of this web application, a combination of both hierarchical and linear structures will be adopted. The actual survey web pages will have a linear structure while the Admin pages will have more hierarchical nature. 411 Database Design Database design involves the production of a model of the data to be stored in the database.
A data model is a diagram of the database design that documents and communicates how the database is structured. The database design methodology followed in this project is that suggested by Connolly et al(2002)[xx]. Connolly presents quite a detailed guide to designing database but not all of those steps may apply here, as this project is not too complex. The design process is divided into three main stages – conceptual, logical and physical database design. The purpose of the conceptual database design is to decompose the design into more manageable tasks, by examining user perspectives of the system.
That is, local conceptual data models are created that are a complete and accurate representation of the enterprise as seen by different users. Each local conceptual data model is made up of entity types, relationship types, attributes and their domains, primary keys and integrity constraints. For each user view identified a local conceptual data model would be built. (Connolly et al,2002) [xx]. In building the conceptual data model, a data dictionary is built to identify the major entities in the system. An entity relationship (ER) diagram is used to visualize the system and represent the user’s requirements.
The ER diagram is used to represent entities and how they relate to one another. The ER diagram also shows the relationships between the entities, their occurrence (multiplicities) and attributes. Following the view integration approach, a different data model (ER diagram) is made for each user Data Dictionary Entity Name Description Donors A person who donates blood Recipients A person who receives blood Diseases The diseases which are found in the infected donated blood Blood group The blood that is donated by the donors Hospital/Clinic
Hospitals to which donated blood is distributed Staff Red Cross staff District Districts from which donors and recipients originate from Table 4. 1: Data Dictionary 4. 11. 1 Conceptual Database Design In this stage, a local conceptual data model is built for each identified view in the system. Alocal conceptual data model comprises of entity types, relationship types, attributes and their domains, primary and alternate keys, and integrity constraints. The conceptual data model is supported by documentation such as a data dictionary.
The entity types are the main objects the users are interested in. Entities have an existence intheir own right. Entity types are identified and their names and description are recorded in adata dictionary. Care is taking to ensure that all relationships in the users requirements specification are identified. An Entity-Relationship diagram is used to represent the relationship between entities. The multiplicity of each relationship is included. This is because a model that includes multiplicity constraints gives a better representation of the enterprise.
Relationship descriptions and the multiplicity constraints are recorded in the data dictionary. Each model is validated to ensure it supported the required transactions. Entity name Attributes Description Data Type Size Nulls Multi Valued Donors donorId (PK) -dNames -sex – dob – distId (FK) – doreg Donor identification number Donor’s names Donor’s sex Date of birth District of origin Date of registration Text Text Text Date Int Date 8 30 6 30 3 30 No No No No No No No No No No No No Recipients -rId (PK) -rNames -sex – dob – distId (FK) – doreg Recipient’s identification umber Recipients names recipient’s sex Date of birth District of origin Date of registration Text Text Text Date Int Date 8 30 6 30 3 30 No No No No No No No No No No No No Diseases -dId (PK) -dNames -drating Disease identification number Disease names Disease rating on how people are infected from it Text Text text 8 30 20 No No No No No No Blood bGroup(PK) donorId (FK) rId (FK) status Blood group Donor identification number recipient identification number status of the donated blood whether infected or not Text Text Text text 2 8 8 15 No No No No No No No No Hospital/
Clinic hId (PK) hNames distId (FK) Hospital identification number Hospital name District identification Number text text int 8 100 3 No No No No No No Staff staffId (PK) staffNames sex dob department Staff identification number Staff names Sex Date of birth Department to which the staff belongs text text sex date text 8 50 6 15 100 No No No No No No No No No No District distId distName District number District name int text 3 100 No No No No Entity name Multiplicity Relationship Entity Name Multiplicity Donors 1 Donates Blood 1 Recipients 1 Receives Blood 1 Diseases Contained in Blood 0 .. * Blood 1 Donated by Donor 1 .. * Hospital/ Clinic 1 Receives Blood 1 .. * Staff 1 Registers Donors 1 .. * District 1 Has Recipients 1 .. * Table 4. 2: An extract from the data dictionary showing a description of the relationships between the entities. 4. 11. 2 Logical Database Design The process of logical database design constructs a model of the information used in an enterprise based on a specific data model, such as the relational model, but independent of a particular DBMS and other physical considerations (Connolly et al, 2002)[xx].
The logical database design consists of an ER diagram, a relational schema, and any supporting documentation for them. In the logical data model, all attributes of entities are primitive. Producing a logical data model involves normalization. The aim of normalization is to eradicate certain undesirable characteristics from a database design. It removes data redundancy and thus prevents update anomalies. Normalization helps increase the clarity of the data model. Integrity constraints are imposed in order to protect the database from becoming inconsistent.
There are five types of integrity constraints – required data, attribute domain constraints, entity integrity, referential integrity and enterprise constraints. The resulting relations are validated using normalization. For this project, producing relations in third normal form (3NF) will suffice. Non-relational features, such as many-to-many relationships and some one-to-one relationships, are removed from the conceptual data model. The design is also reviewed to make sure it meets all the transaction requirements. [pic] 1.. * 1.. 1 1.. * 1.. * 1.. 1 1.. 1 registers Donors PK donorId Names sex dob FK distId doreg District PK distId distName Recipient PK rId rNames sex dob FK distId doreg Hospital PK hId (PK) hNames FK distId Staff PK staffId staffNames sex dob department Diseases PK dId dNames drating Blood PK bGroup FK donorId FK rId status Fig. 4. 6: The ER diagram 4. 11. 3 Physical Database Design Physical database design translates the logical data model into a set of SQL statements that define the database for a particular database system. In other words, it is the process of producing a description of the implementation of the database on secondary storage.
It describes the base relations and the storage structures and access methods used to access the data effectively, along with associated integrity constraints and security measures. The target DBMS in this case is MySQL. The following translations occur: 1. Entities become tables in MySQL. 2. Attributes become columns in the MySQL database. 3. Relationships between entities are modeled as foreign keys. Donation Process View Video • [pic] Getting Ready for Your Donation • • The Donation Process Step by Step • • After the Donation To get ready for your donation: | |[pic] | |Make an Appointment | |It always helps us to know in advance when you are coming in to make a donation. | |[pic] | |Hydrate |[pic] | |Be sure to drink plenty of fluids the day of your donation. | |[pic] | | |Wear Something Comfortable | | |Wear clothing with sleeves that can easily be rolled up | | |above the elbow. | |[pic] | | |Maintain a Healthy Level of Iron in Your Diet Before | | |Donating | | |If possible, include iron-rich foods in your diet, | | |especially in the weeks before your donation. | |[pic] | |Bring a List of Medications You Are Taking | |We will need to know about any prescription and/or over the counter medications that may be in your system. |[pic] | |[pic] |Bring an ID | | |Please bring either your donor card, driver’s | | |license or two other forms of identification. | |[pic] | | |Bring a Friend | | |Bring along a friend, so that you may both enjoy | | |the benefits of giving blood. | |[pic] | | |Relax! | | |Blood donation is a simple and very safe procedure| | |so there is nothing to worry about. |