'Mixed reality' donation option coming to Versiti Blood Center of Ohio June 27

Blood donations will take a modern spin in the Columbus area before the end of the month.

Starting June 27, the Versiti Blood Center of Ohio in Hilliard will offer a "mixed reality" blood donation experience in an effort to attract new donors and ease the giving process for existing donors.

For users, mixed reality meshes real-world senses with virtual reality concepts. Donors will wear a Microsoft HoloLens 2 visor that provides vocal directions and on-screen touch buttons, ultimately leading them to create soothing digital forestry.

"While you're donating blood, you're essentially building a garden," said Versiti public relations manager Kristin Paltzer. "It's very calming."

Mixed reality differs from full virtual reality in that it allows users to maintain awareness of their actual surroundings, ensuring donors of their safety throughout the blood donation process.

Visors will be available at the Versiti Blood Center of Ohio on a first-come, first-serve basis, and cannot be reserved ahead of time, Paltzer said. Versiti intends to make mixed reality available at its mobile blood drives around the state eventually.

The Versiti Blood Center of Ohio, which supplies blood to Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, hopes the mixed reality donation opportunity will entice prospective donors during a hard time of the year.

"We are looking for the community to come in and donate blood," Paltzer said. "Summers are really challenging for the blood donor industry."

Ohio won't be the first state to offer the mixed reality blood donation experience. Blood Centers of America is partnering with Abbott Laboratories to bring it to donation centers around the country. Mixed reality is already available to donors at two Versiti locations in Illinois, as well as at two other blood centers in New York and one in Texas.

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The mixed reality blood donation experience comes to Ohio less than 18 months after the American Red Cross declared its first-ever national blood supply crisis. In 2021, donations from people 30 and younger were found to have decreased by 30% over the previous decade, according to Abbott Laboratories. The mixed reality blood experience is aimed largely at getting more young people to donate, Paltzer said.

JNimesheim@dispatch.com

@JackNimesheim