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Grants & Research
Talisman Limited has received two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the National Heart Lung & Blood Institute (NHLBI) for the purpose of developing automated donor processing systems with emphasis on audio-visual touch screen computer assisted donor self interviewing (AVT-CASI). The first SBIR grant (HL61111) was awarded in 1998 for development of a proof-of-concept version of the QDS software aimed at improving consistency of the interview process and reducing or eliminating non-decision making human errors such as incompleteness, transposition, key entry, donor literacy and communication errors. Legibility problems are also addressed by QDS. Thomas F. Zuck, MD of the Hoxworth Blood Center was co-investigator on this effort. The initial Phase I grant was followed by a Phase II grant in 2000, under which QDS was re-developed as a web-based system, installed at a mid-sized blood center (Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, Louis M. Katz, MD, Co-investigator) and subjected to scientific evaluation. The second SBIR grant (HL072635) for "Paperless Quality Donor System with Decision making" was awarded in 2003, with a Phase II follow-on. Under this grant, QDS was further refined, including installing it in three more blood centers and a hospital blood bank. Additional development has included improving performance in a networked environment, QDS in Spanish, prototyping of vital signs and phlebotomy functions, and implementation of the new (2004) AABB Uniform Donor History Questionnaire (UDHQ) including rudimentary decision aids. Further studies (2004) on system performance and user preferences corroborated earlier work (2001-2002) establishing that QDS significantly reduces FDA-reportable errors, reduces staff time for interviews, improves donor disclosure of risky and stigmatizing behavior and is strongly preferred by donors and blood center staff compared to face-to-face interviewing used prior to QDS adoption. IIn 2005, Talisman was awarded a 3-year competing continuation grant (HL072635) for FDA-regulated SBIR projects, entitled “Paperless Quality Donor System with Decision Making”, to carry on its development and commercialization of its systems. All of the SBIR grants support the company’s mission to improve the safety and availability of the US blood supply using information technology (IT). Additional details about the individual grants can be found here.
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All images, text, and other content ©2001-2010 Document last updated 9 January 2009
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Development of the Quality Donor System™ (QDS) began in 1992 with the
desktop United Blood Services Windows 3.1 application from which has evolved the current QDS
Release 2.11 web technology-based system. Despite this long history, it was not until the late 1990's that the development and regulatory climate in the United States became sufficiently favorable to permit implementation
of QDS in blood banks.