
Blood donors in Sweden get a text message when their blood saves someone's life - hippich
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/blood-donors-in-sweden-get-a-text-message-whenever-someone-is-helped-with-their-blood-10310101.html
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AriaMinaei
This could work not just for donating blood, but for pretty much any kind of
service.

Imagine if you could see, in real time, how your job affects other people's
lives, even in the most mundane way. It would let you see the value of what
you do, and give you a reason to do it better.

~~~
fabiandesimone
I always thought about this about taxes.

If you could choose from a list of projects a la Kickstarter where YOU choose
where your taxes go to, I'm sure people would not only feel better about taxes
in general but would allow them to get involved in said projects.

~~~
danieltillett
The problem with this approach is the areas of need rarely aligns with areas
of desire. What happens to those areas that need resources that nobody really
cares about?

~~~
minot
> What happens to those areas that need resources that nobody really cares
> about?

This is why taxes cannot be donations. Indeed, they are not donations.

I remember the people at institutional giving at my old college say that
nobody wants their name on a parking lot.

~~~
jacquesm
I'd much rather have my name on a parking lot than on a landmine.

~~~
vonklaus
America has pledged not to use anti-personnel landmines(APL) anywhere outside
of the Korean peninsula. I suspect (although obviously can't confirm) America
has reserved this right but probably does not exercise it.

> The United States is the world’s single largest financial supporter of
> humanitarian mine action, which includes not only clearance of landmines,
> but also medical rehabilitation and vocational training for those injured by
> landmines and other explosive remnants of war. Since the United States
> Humanitarian Mine Action Program was established in 1993, the United States
> has provided over $2.3 billion in aid in over 90 countries for conventional
> weapons destruction programs.[0]

While I am quite cynical and definitively against a lot of the ways our
military has been employed, the degree of safety and the diplomatic security I
receive as a result of it, provides more utility to me than a parking lot.

More broadly, roads and localized infrastructure are quite important, as is
the military. I agree that personally I would allocate more money for
infrastructure than to the military, and agree if this is the point you were
making. I do want to illustrate the counterpoints that many people (once
again, not me personally) would "Rather have their names on the bombs that
kill terrorists"[1], than on a highway.

[0]
[http://www.state.gov/t/pm/wra/c11735.htm](http://www.state.gov/t/pm/wra/c11735.htm)

[1] This is a dramatic characterization and hyperbole. However, I do suspect a
large swathe of the country believes this.

~~~
jacquesm
I don't live in America. And my country makes all kinds of crap. Clusterbombs
and what not. The landmine was meant as an illustration, not as a particular
item, it could just as well have been a clusterbomb or some other
intrinsically negative item.

~~~
vonklaus
Sorry, that was a pretty ethnocentric assumption on my part. A case could be
made that landmines are intrinsically negative as they are non-discriminating
hazards that render large portions of land unsafe well after a conflict has
ended. Bombs, missiles tanks etc, I am not so sure of. I would appraise them
as neutral, with the potential to be negative or positive.

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SCAQTony
The Gamification of saving lives! f __k yeah! - "I AM LEVEL 3, yesssssss."
(3-lives saved)

~~~
sajal83
Many places already do that... counting the number of times a person has
donated (not actually used) and giving them some status accordingly.

~~~
joezydeco
Except we now live in the Internet age...where nothing happens unless you can
post it on Twitter or Facebook.

~~~
SCAQTony
Maybe they should post it on Twitter too - "@JoezyDeco just saved the life of
a premature infant." (Graphic of a God Mode badge.) ;-)

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anigbrowl
What a genius idea to raise awareness. This seems like a no-brainer for blood
banks, hospitals, public health and so on.

~~~
jacquesm
I think it's a terrible idea. That reverse track from specific use of blood to
phone number of the source should not even exist.

~~~
prebrov
That probably must exist to track potential problem with donor's blood in case
it wasn't spotted

And also, people generally like being appreciated personally. I'd imagine that
named donations prevail over anonymous in most cases.

~~~
XorNot
Exactly. The fact Sweden can do this is a comfort: it speaks to amazing
inventory management.

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xelfer
This also recently started happening in Australia, I got a text message 3
weeks ago saying my blood was used in Liverpool hospital. It was pretty fun
knowing where it helped someone.

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logicallee
Life hacks. On a date in Sweden? Arrange your buddy to send you a text message
saying you just saved someone's life. Watch jealousy turn to desire when you
get a text message (another girl??), and say, "Oh - I just saved someone's
life. See?"

I'm just kidding. My real point is that a mailed letter (or email) sounds more
appropriate than a text message. But then again maybe not!

~~~
spiritplumber
Wouldn't work in the US, I find that the social value of having saved
someone's life is somewhere between zero and negative, unless that someone
belongs to your interlocutor's subculture.

You tell an investor in SF, in passing, "I talked a junkie off the bridge and
took her away before the cops showed up, and let her stay at my place for six
months until she cleaned up", and they'll think you are mad, not honorable.

(Not a true story; composite of three separate incidents)

~~~
imjustsaying
>"I talked a junkie off the bridge and took her away before the cops showed
up, and let her stay at my place for six months until she cleaned up"

It's reassuring to know I'm not the only one who got an ex-girlfriend this
way.

~~~
spiritplumber
Nah, I have a guest room with its own door. Don't stick your dip in crazy, and
all that.

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girvo
I wish I was allowed to donate blood. This is a great idea, I hope other
countries adopt it.

~~~
ddorian43
Why aren't you allowed ?

~~~
ptaipale
In different countries, there are various reasons, some better than others.
Chronic illnesses like hepatitis, having had gay sex, having lived in Britain
in 1980's. These contribute some risk to donating blood.

~~~
giarc
Also having malaria, paying money or sex for drugs, lived in Africa for 6
months, ever had a blood transfusion, dura matter transplant... the list goes
on. In Canada, every time you donate you answer about 13 questions on your
own, then a nurse asks you about 10 "high risk" questions. You can tell they
could recite them in their sleep, and I'm almost at the point where I could as
well.

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gravypod
It makes me sad to see people who donate or contribute to charity for
popularity. The idea behind giving blood--or other community services--is to
help society as a hole, not your ego. Charity should not be flashed like a
status symbol.

If a charity is wasting time and money developing systems to stroke your ego,
they should just skip the step and sell themselves to Fleshlight. Their time
and money should be spent on improving the lives of those in need, not by
stroking off some people.

~~~
DanBC
This is a simple and cheap method to get more people to male the altruistic[1]
step of donating blood.

It's not much fun; it's sort of awkward for some people; we could probably do
woth more people donating blood.

The blood banks have a choice: spend money on tv ads, or spend money doing
this. Why are ads okay and this terrible?

[1] I'm not interested in philosophy of altruism.

~~~
gravypod
Who said ads are okay? Wasting money that you promise to put towards a goal on
something else is, in my mind, wrong.

People already know donating blood is a good and charitable act. We don't need
someone to tell us that.

~~~
DanBC
How are they supposed to get more people to donate blood?

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softgrow
Might work for some people but not for me. I'd start worrying I'm not donating
enough. With plasma you can donate every two weeks which is pretty often, I
only go once every four weeks. However I liked the chocolates that were handed
out at the blood bank around Christmas time last year (Australia). Oh and in
case your wondering they used to offer beer in refreshment but that was cut
out a couple of years ago. But they do have wifi now :-).

~~~
jonwachob91
Interesting. In the US you can donate plasma twice a calendar week as long 48
hours separates the donations.

I use to do red blood and double red as frequently as a I could, the day I
became eligible again was the day I donated. When you do something like that
you can't worry if you are donating enough - you know that you are doing
everything you are allowed to do.

~~~
pavel_lishin
My friend, you may be suffering from ALAS.

[http://www.davidbrin.com/givingplague.html](http://www.davidbrin.com/givingplague.html)

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jacquesm
So, how long until someone figures out that they don't actually need to save
someone's life to send a text message? And what about using the blood when
someone's life is not saved, does that not warrant a text message?

How come the entities using the blood and/or distributing it have access to
the phone numbers of the donors?

~~~
Trombone12
You try turning up at ha hospital with a bag of blood and saying "here's some
blood, but I won't say who it's from".

~~~
jacquesm
I'd hope that would get you arrested in short order and held until you come up
with a very good and verifiable explanation about where the blood came from.

Who donated the blood is important at the point of capture, where you want to
analyse the blood and make sure that neither the plasma nor the cells carry
anything other than benefits to the eventual recipient.

But who exactly sourced the blood should be of no concern to the agency that
ends up using it, and _if_ there is a problem the only thing they should have
to go back on should be an un-identifiable serial number that they can use to
report back to the collection agency to make sure they destroy the rest of the
blood from that lot and mark that particular donor as un-acceptable.

What should happen beyond that is up to the local legislation, presumably the
donor should be warned and the screening process should be improved so a
similar thing will _never_ happen again, if a problem with blood products is
only discovered at the time of use then that's a process failure much more
than a problem with that blood.

~~~
cdcarter
This may well be what happens. The hospital informs the agency that they've
used SN547825482 and that agencies database triggers a text message.

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4h53n
In fact, here in Turkey, a similar service is in use for several years now.

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decafbad
Turkish Red Crescent does that too. It works.

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MichaelCrawford
My friend Regan Gill once worked for the Seattle blood bank. She said business
was always hopping after the bars closed, espcially on friday and saturday
nights.

On time a bag of blood broke open while she was carrying a case of blood down
a long hallway. It looked just like she'd dragged a stiff down the hall.

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notNow
Hasn't the gamification and the application of Pavlovian behavior online gone
already too far?

I mean this trend of employing FB notifications like Dopamine/Serotonin
rewarding systems is getting out of hand and we need to address it properly.

~~~
qtheninja
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tomjen3
Blood donation is not very efficient charity and the service is homophobic and
(in the US) nationalistic (no the entirety of Europe doesn't have mad cow
disease). Instead of sending these feel good SMS messages they should work on
solving those two issues.

~~~
icebraining
So what do you think Sweden should do about the nationalism of the US' blood
donation system?

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relicscattergun
Am I the only one who thinks donating blood is a bad idea based on personality
of the donor? I know that this article refers to organ transplant, but I also
have read articles talking about how blood donations can affect personality:

[http://www.medicaldaily.com/can-organ-transplant-change-
reci...](http://www.medicaldaily.com/can-organ-transplant-change-recipients-
personality-cell-memory-theory-affirms-yes-247498)

