Inaraa Healthcare is an online plasma bank initiative that connects critical COVID patients to plasma donors
Hospitals across India are rapidly adopting plasma therapy to improve the conditions of critical COVID patients until vaccines are released. Many patients in New Delhi recovered completely through plasma therapy. Plasma from recovered patients contains anti-bodies that active patients can use to fight their condition. While there are thousands of eligible plasma donors, patients find it hard and lose precious time in trying to reach them.
To solve this problem, Srinivas Sarkar and Sidharth Lahoti started Inaraa.org in June 2020. Inaraa is a digital plasma bank that lets willing plasma donors register themselves on the website so that patients in need of plasma can connect with them. It is a fully automated platform that allows patients to directly place requests for plasma to registered donors.
Co-Founder, Sidharth Lahoti, said, “We started Inaraa with a goal to help the world with what we can do best. Today, I am glad to inform we have helped more than 158 patients connect with a plasma donor. Inaraa will continue in its efforts to help save lives!”
Patients in need of plasma can visit the Inaraa website, choose their city and blood group, select the donor that matches their need, and fill out the patient details during registration. Donors registered on Inaraa will get an email prompt every time a patient has requested for their plasma. They can view these requests and visit the patient’s hospital to donate. Donors are more willing to step forward this way as they are given the option to choose from the list of patients, and their identities are kept confidential. The data of patients are also secured. However, during an emergency, Inaraa does reach out to donors directly to request them to donate plasma. Apart from registering on the website, one can easily reach out to them through social media. A patient can access the plasma free of cost.
Inaraa has listed 24 cities on its platform and is currently fully operational in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Odisha, and Hyderabad.
Co-Founder, Srinivas Sarkar informed, “We have a team of 42 active volunteers across major cities. Our team is building partnerships with large hospitals to generate awareness about the platform so that patients can seamlessly find the plasma they need, and to also constantly build our donor base.”
Inaraa is currently working on a short, high-impact project in Vijayawada, where they aim to connect every patient with an eligible plasma donor. Sarkar adds, “The numbers are on our side. India has enough plasma donors to provide life-saving plasma to every patient that requires it. We aim for the project at Vijayawada to showcase how solvable this problem really is. Moreover, the fact that eligible donors can donate twice every seven days makes this challenge even more surmountable!”
Visit www.inaraa.org to learn more about the platform or drop an email at lahoti.sidh@gmail.com. You can also check out social media handles on Facebook and Instagram.