When the Austrian Red Cross in Upper Austria wanted to digitalise their services for blood donation, they found a perfect partner - Netcetera. After some fruitful discussion, a new ÖRK app called “Mein Blut” emerged. The app would not only allow donors to see where their closest donation centre was, but also fill in their medical form and save it in the form of an encrypted QR code which could then be scanned by the supervising doctor. A formidable challenge, combining highly secure data protection and backend connection with user friendliness for donors. But not too big a challenge for Netcetera.
The highly qualified Netcetera team in Linz, Austria, and Skopje, North Macedonia, quickly went to work, entering into dialogue with the client to prepare as well as possible. The project began in early 2020, with the coronavirus pandemic restricting meetings to be mostly digital. Despite these setbacks, the team put together an impressive product by thinking ahead, gathering use cases and anticipating needs. The UX team used online tools to brainstorm the app design and map the user journey, creating wireframes in Overflow. After log-in with 2-factor authentication, the user reaches a dashboard where they can see their donor details and have the options to fill in the questionnaire, check their existing QR code and book their next blood donor appointment. When filling in the questionnaire, the user has the option to skip questions and answer them with a doctor.
When processing user data from the app, Netcetera developers had to ensure the highest possible data security, complying with Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards. They worked with backends provided by other companies, based on open-source software built around FHIR. It was a new area for them, but they could build on their previous knowledge of data security from the payment sector to create data security for users in the health sector. Aleksandar Apostolov, one of Netcetera’s software engineers on the project said “We were able to bring in our security know-how to provide better than required protection of the user data.”
At every turn, the team’s initiative and engagement with the topic helped to create an outstanding app. As Margot Stummer, UX designer at Netcetera commented “I was very passionate about this project, having been a paramedic and blood donor myself, and found it easy to adapt to the terminology and identify with the user.” This led to high customer satisfaction, with contacts at the Austrian Red Cross declaring that they were very happy to have chosen Netcetera as a partner.
Mag. Werner Watzinger, financial director of the Linz Blood Donation Centre commented “We wanted to bring the Red Cross into the digital age and Netcetera were just the right people to help us do that. We are extremely satisfied with our collaboration and can highly recommend them.” The app was released on 24 March for Apple and Android devices. It has been downloaded over 11,000 times since then and has already enabled over 3,700 users to receive their blood test results.
