Method and Apparatus for Fulfilling Requests for Perishable Items

Abstract

Apparatuses, methods, and computer readable medium, for fulfilling a need for at least one perishable item, the method including reserving a plurality of perishable items with at least partially unknown attribute profiles from a supplier; receiving values for at least some of the reserved at least partially unknown attribute profiles, wherein the received values are determined by tests conducted after the reserving step; determining based on the received values which of the plurality of perishable items satisfy the need for the at least one perishable item; and if at least one of the plurality of perishable items does not satisfy the need for the at least one perishable item, unreserving the at least one perishable item of the plurality of perishable items determined not to satisfy the need for the at least one perishable item.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of operating a biological element inventory exchange system acting as an intermediary between a biological element supplier and a biological element requester to enhance a clinical value of, and to assign to the requester, at least one perishable biological element item, the method comprising:
 reserving, by the exchange, a set of perishable biological element items from the supplier predicted, according to a predetermined probability by the exchange, to contain items having an initially unknown desired biological element attribute, wherein whether an item has the unknown desired biological element attribute or not is unknown by both the exchange and the supplier;   wherein:
 the reserving comprises giving exclusive control to the exchange by the supplier to acquire or unreserve of any of the reserved set of biological element items to the exchange; and 
 the data records associated with the reserved set of biological element items are stored in a memory of a database of the inventory exchange system; 
   
       the method further comprising:
 determining, by a processor, which items of the reserved set of biological element items have the unknown desired biological element attribute by: a) performing a physical test on each item from the reserved set of biological element items by a tester designated by the exchange, or b) referencing results of a physical test on a related item from a same person, in order to determine which biological element items of the reserved set of biological element items have the desired biological element attribute, defined as desired items, and the desired biological element item's clinical effectiveness is enhanced based on knowing the desired biological element attribute of the desired biological element item; 
 receiving, by the exchange, results from the physical test performed on each biological element item or related item identifying one or more biological element attributes of the biological element; 
 storing, in a memory using a processor of the inventory exchange system, an indication as to which of the reserved set of biological element items are desired biological element items having the desired biological element attribute, thereby creating a virtual inventory of desired biological element items; 
 unreserving, by the exchange, biological element items determined not to have the desired biological element attribute, wherein the unreserving comprises releasing the exclusive control given to the exchange of the biological element items; 
 receiving a request from a biological element requester for a biological element item having a biological element attribute profile, also called a requested element profile, that includes the initially unknown desired biological element attribute; and 
 matching the request with biological element items in the virtual inventory based on the requested element profile; 
 wherein the matching comprises determining compatibility between a requested element profile and a biological element attribute profile in virtual inventory, also called a virtual inventory element profile, according to a predefined compatibility criterion. 
 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, sequentially:
 performing a further physical test on each item from the desired items by a tester designated by the exchange, to determine which items of the desired items have a second desired attribute, defined as finally desired items;   storing, using a processor of the inventory exchange system, an indication as to which of the desired items are finally desired items in the memory;   unreserving, by the exchange, from the set of biological element items, a first subset of items determined by the physical test to lack the desired attribute, defined as a first desired attribute, and unreserving, from a set of retained items, a subset determined to lack the second desired attribute, wherein the unreserving comprises releasing the exclusive control given to the exchange of the items.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining a number of the set of perishable items based on at least: a) a resource cost for temporarily preventing a sale; b) a time intended for temporarily preventing the sale; and c) a resource cost for performing the physical test or measurement.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , 
       wherein the step of giving exclusive control to the exchange comprises:
 receiving title to the set of perishable items from the supplier in exchange for a loan; and 
 
       wherein the step of releasing the exclusive control given to the exchange comprises:
 when at least one of the set of perishable items does not have the desired attribute, transferring title to the at least one perishable item that does not have the desired attribute back to the supplier in exchange for repayment of the loan, and 
 when at least one of the set of perishable items does have the desired attribute, replenishing the supplier with at least one equivalent perishable item for the at least one of the set of perishable items that does have the desired attribute. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of giving exclusive control to the exchange comprises:
 entering into a conditional sale agreement for the set of items; and   when the specific item does not have the desired item attribute,
 not exercising the conditional sale agreement for the specific item; and 
   when the specific item does have the desired item attribute,
 exercising the conditional sale agreement for the specific candidate item. 
   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of performing the physical test comprises:
 instructing, by the exchange, the supplier to send a part of each of the reserved set of perishable items to a laboratory for testing; and   receiving results of the testing as values for the unknown attribute.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 sharing the results of the testing with the supplier in at least partial exchange for a duration dependent resource cost for the reserving.   
     
     
         8 . A method of fulfilling a need for a biological element, the method comprising:
 entering, by a biological element exchange, into a conditional sale agreement for a set of perishable biological elements with at least partially unknown biological element attribute profiles from a supplier, wherein:
 the biological element unknown attribute profiles have a biological element attribute that is unknown by both the exchange and the supplier; 
 the unknown biological element attribute is not specified in a supplier's product specification; and 
 the perishable biological elements have a duration-dependent resource cost to the exchange; 
   receiving values by a communications input of a processor of the exchange for at least some of the at least partially unknown biological element attribute profiles based on: a) performance of a physical test on each of the biological elements to determine the unknown biological element attribute by a tester designated by the exchange, or b) referencing results of a physical test on a related item from a same person, and the tested biological element's clinical value and clinical effectiveness to be more accurately matched with a recipient is enhanced based on knowing the desired biological element attribute of the desired biological element;   storing the values in a database residing in a memory of a computer associated with the exchange system;   determining, using the processor of the exchange system computer, based on the received values which of the set of biological elements satisfy the need for the biological element;   when at least one of the set of biological elements does not satisfy the need for the biological element, not exercising the conditional sale agreement for the at least one of the set of biological elements determined not to satisfy the need for the at least one biological element;   when at least one of the set of biological elements does satisfy the need for the biological element, exercising the conditional sale agreement for the at least one of the set of biological elements determined to satisfy the need for the at least one biological element; and   fulfilling the need for the biological element with the at least one of the set of biological elements determined to satisfy the need for the at least one biological element, wherein at least one step is executed by a processor of a computer;   wherein the determining of which of the set of biological elements satisfy the need for the biological element comprises:
 determining a compatibility between a requested biological element profile and a virtual inventory biological element profile according to a predefined compatibility criterion. 
   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the step of receiving values for at least some of the at least partially unknown attribute profiles comprises:
 instructing the supplier to send a part of each of the set of biological elements with at least partially unknown profiles to a laboratory for testing;   representing the set of biological elements with at least partially unknown profiles in a computer memory;   receiving values for at least some of the at least partially unknown profile; and   updating the representation of the set of biological elements with at least partially unknown profiles with the received values.   
     
     
         10 . A computer system of a biological element inventory exchange system for fulfilling a need for at least one perishable biological element item, the system comprising:
 a memory that contains a database associated with the exchange system;   a processor comprising software modules adapted to:
 reserve a set of perishable biological element items with at least partially unknown biological element attribute profiles from a supplier, wherein:
 the unknown biological element attribute profiles have a biological element attribute that is unknown by both the exchange and the supplier; 
 the unknown biological element attribute is not specified in a supplier's product specification; 
 the perishable biological element items have a duration-dependent resource cost to the exchange; and 
 the reserving comprises giving exclusive control to the exchange by the supplier of any of the reserved set of biological unit items to a third party by a communication between the exchange and the supplier over a networked interface; 
 
   the processor further adapted to:
 receive values by a communications input of the processor for at least some of the at least partially unknown biological element attribute profiles based on: a) performance of a physical test on each biological element to determine the unknown attribute by a tester designated by the exchange, or b) reference results of a physical test on a related item from a same person, and the tested item's clinical value and clinical effectiveness is enhanced based on knowing the desired attribute of the desired item, and storing the values in a database residing in a memory of a computer associated with the exchange system; 
 determine based on the received values which of the set of perishable biological element items satisfy the need for the at least one perishable biological element item; and 
 unreserve at least one perishable biological element item of the set of perishable biological element items determined not to satisfy the need for the at least one perishable biological element item, if at least one of the set of perishable biological element items does not satisfy the need for the at least one perishable biological element item, wherein the unreserving comprises releasing the exclusive control given to the exchange of the biological element items. 
   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the matching comprises:
 determining an incompatible attribute match if a first category of an attribute is present in the virtual inventory element profile that is not present in the requested element profile; and   determining a compatible attribute match if a second category of an attribute is present in the virtual inventory element profile that is not present in the requested biological unit attribute profile.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the requested element profile comprises a plurality of specified attributes, each comprising a value of “having” or “not having”, the method further comprising:
 determining a virtual inventory element does not match the request if there is determined to be an incompatible attribute match of a first category attribute. 
 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 determining a virtual inventory element does match the request if:
 a) all attribute items of the request exactly match corresponding attribute items of the virtual inventory element; or 
 b) for attribute items of the request that do not exactly match corresponding attribute items of the virtual inventory element, only compatible attribute matches of the second category are present. 
   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein:
 the biological elements are blood elements that are defined as blood units or cellular components of blood; and   the biological element profiles are blood antigen profiles comprising antigen designations.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein:
 an incompatible attribute match is determined by whether a presence of such an attribute would cause a recipient immune system to react negatively; and   a compatible attribute match is determined by whether a presence of such an attribute would not cause the recipient immune system to react negatively.