Elective Surgery
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1a Solution: There are four market segments namely, Elective Surgery, Emergency Surgery (in hospital), Trauma (in field administration) & Chronic Anemia. Elective Surgery requires blood to be arranged for in advance, therefore, patient will prefer to opt for regular blood transfusion due to higher costs to acquire hemopure ($700-$113 – Appendix A). Substitute blood may be used there is excessive blood loss or substitute blood is not readily available. Emergency Surgery (in hospital): Since loss of blood is excessive, hemopure will be a better fit. It is 100% efficient at transporting oxygen which is important in case of excessive blood loss. Also, patient does not need to worry about finding the right blood group match. Trauma Currently only 10% of the people receive on field RBCs while 30% of Trauma cases end up losing lives. Use of Hemopure will be able to eliminate these fatalities since it has better storage life and is a Universal blood substitute. Chronic Anemia: Frequent blood requirement makes Blood substitutes extremely expensive unless covered with insurance. Also, blood substitutes have a short half-life, making it unsuitable for patients suffering from chronic anemia who need blood frequently. It also has a potential for higher toxicity which is also a reason why chronic anemia patients would not be recommended to use this substitute.
1(b) Solution: Current usage (’95)Expected growthUsage (End of ’99)Elective Surgery6,900,00010%690,000Since most patients will not opt to use the substitute blood except in case of non-availability or excessive blood loss which is assumed at only 10%.Emergency Surgery1,000,00060%600,000Since all trauma patients would have been treated on the field only remaining patients will be fully treated at hospital. Assuming that 40% patients are treated on-field.Trauma (in field)200,00090%2,000,000Since currently only 10% patients are transfused Chronic anemia3,200,0000%0None of the Chronic anemia patients will need the substitute blood. Borderline surgeries03,240,0003,240,000As per exhibit 5 given and the case study, 8.1million units of blood were transferred to 2.5million patients in case of acute blood loss, thus each patient required 3.24 units of blood. The doctors do not transfuse blood in 1million cases, thus there is an additional demand of 3.24million (3.24 x 1million) units which can be met using substitute blood. The impact of increase in population by 1999 will be 285,000 units (Appendices B & C). Therefore, the total market potential is 6.82 Million units (Appendix D)