Brothers in AIIMS & IIT Delhi design app to match plasma donors of COVID-19

Amid increasing cases of COVID-19 across the country, two brothers from Ghaziabad have designed an application named COPAL19 to match plasma donors with patients.

Amid increasing cases of COVID-19 across the country, two brothers, elder doctor and younger engineer designed an application named COPAL19 to match plasma donors with patients. Dr Abhinav Singh Verma, a resident doctor at the neuro-surgery department of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Tushar, a final year student at IIT- Delhi, has developed this application.

At present, the application has the data of all COVID-19 patients treated at AIIMS. Now, the doctors are planning to make this application live on Google Play Store from Thursday onwards for Android users. However, for the iOS version, it will take a couple of more days. Dr Verma told ANI that his colleague from AIIMS-- Dr Adarsh Pratap Singh and Dr Pawan Sinhmar-- was also involved in developing COPAL19.

After downloading the application, the donors are required to fill up all the details in a hassle-free format. Not only that, AIIMS blood banks have also been linked to this application so that information can reach the needy patients. The patients can also register themselves and get the details of the plasma donors who match their blood group.

"My brother, Tushar gave me this idea to create live tracking software on plasma donors, which is in huge scarcity now. We were working on this application for two weeks, but after our colleague fell sick, we really hurried up to launch the application," Dr Verma said. "Two days back, our colleague who was COVID patient was in dire need of a plasma donor. He was admitted to AIIMS. With all our efforts, we could not find a plasma donor for him. Later his condition started deteriorating. Then, we shifted him to Max Hospital, Saket. After several hours of struggle in search of a plasma donor, we were able to find two donors, out of which only one donor was found suitable for donation.

"The biggest challenge for us was to get a plasma donor who has passed at least 28 days or one-month post COVID recovery. Then only a recovered coronavirus patient can donate plasma. This COPAL19 would help us to get the live tracking of plasma donors who have been cured of COVID-19 and wish to donate plasma for a noble cause," Dr Verma said. Tushar had also developed a medical facility tracker app for the Delhi government last month. He told ANI that "it is a simple user interface application with automated donor matching. In the beginning, the application will be for AIIMS only and later it will be expanded for patients outside AIIMS."

Recently, the Union Health Ministry has issued clinical management protocol for COVID-19, in which convalescent plasma by plasmapheresis has been indicated as "Off Label" in COVID-19 patients stating that convalescent plasma may be considered in patients with the moderate disease who are not improving (oxygen requirement is progressively increasing) despite the use of steroids.