Management of blood donation system: Literature review and research perspectives

Applying optimization methods to healthcare management and logistics is a developing research area with numerous studies. Specifically, facility location, staff rostering, patient allocation, and medical supply transportation are the main themes analysed. Optimization approaches have been developed for several healthcare related problems, ranging from the resource management in hospitals to the delivery of care services in a territory. However, optimization approaches can also improve other services in the health system that have been only marginally addressed, yet. One of them is the Blood Donation (BD) system, aiming at providing an adequate supply of blood to Transfusion Centres (TCs) and hospitals.