The article, Uncertainty in blood supply chains creating challenges for industry, is a distillation of some of the research that we have done on blood supply chains at the Virtual Center for Supernetworks at the Isenberg School, coupled with updates on the latest economic issues facing the industry. I argue in the article, for example, that supply chain analytics can help in quantifying any synergies associated with mergers and acquisitions in this industry and help in better matching supply with demand.
My article was the top story on Monday in The Conversation and was featured on its homepage. It has been picked up by several news outlets, including the San Francisco Chronicle. The article is characterized under Health and Medicine.
I never, ever thought that something I wrote would end up on The Conversation's homepage next to and on the same page as a photo of President-elect Trump but it did so on Monday.
This article has attracted good, high quality attention and I have had the pleasure of getting messages from professionals from various countries highlighting even how blood supply chains are managed there and what kinds of incentives are given to attract donors. Given that during the holiday season and the winter there may be fewer donations, this is quite relevant, although the industry, overall, now has a much lower demand for blood in the US than only a decade ago and one of the reasons is that fewer pints are transfused in many surgeries and new surgical techniques result in less loss of blood in patients.
I very much enjoyed working with the Editor and in getting the article polished and published and plan on writing other articles for The Conversation in the future.
It was also cool to see the article make the UMass Amherst homepage (and, appropriately, right next to an announcement of an event for a new Master's in Business and Analytics at the Isenberg School!
Many thanks to Lynne Anderson of The Conversation for helping us to get the news on our research out!
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