Case Studies: The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)

Organization:  The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) helps people who need a life-saving marrow or blood cell transplant. We connect patients, doctors, donors and researchers to resources they need to help more people live longer, healthier lives. To achieve our mission, we:

• Search the Registry -- the largest listing of volunteer donors and cord blood units in the world 

• Support patients and their doctors throughout the transplant process 

• Match patients with the best donor or cord blood unit using innovative science and technology

Product:  CORD Link and STAR Link are NMDP's software applications which are used to organize and store the large amounts of information required to manage and maintain bone marrow and cord blood units.  The system allows for a two-way transaction process in which search request information is sent out and responded to daily as new information - possibly about a new cord blood unit - is entered into the system.  

Challenge:  NMDP needed a software engineering partner to web-enable the existing software applications and improve their overall effectiveness in making lifesaving donor/recipient matches.  NMDP needed a way to securely track and maintain recruitment information of eligible donors and manage data not currently tracked by the legacy software.  This data included donor review consent processes, donor physician information, lab results and other critical information. 

Solution:  After an extensive review of several software consulting firms, NMDP selected WynEdge Software to provide the necessary software engineering.  The WynEdge team delivered a web-based application which allowed for multiple location access from multiple users.  The implementation process involved converting current software databases into a web-based system.  Failover and Replication applications were also implemented to assure availability in the event of system failure. 

Results:  Thanks to WynEdge's contribution, NMDP users have benefited in the following ways:

• Transactions between blood donor/recipient are now more efficient and effective - which is a significant benefit given the fact these are lifesaving tools.

• Registry of volunteer donors is now much cleaner and up-to-date.

• Access points for all users involved in donor/recipient transactions now much broader and more robust.

• Manual tasks typically associated with new search requests have now been automated by WynEdge.  What once took an entire day now takes 1 hour.

• WynEdge continues to add new features and improve the user experience and efficiencies.

As stated in the WynEdge mission statement, our primary job is to help our clients succeed in the marketplace.  Thanks to the WynEdge software team, NMDP can more effectively meet its goal to help people who need a life-saving marrow or blood cell transplant.