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The blog details how a blockchain healthcare application mitigates counterfeit medicines. It explains how blockchain application development services provide solutions to the pharmaceutical industry to stop the influx of counterfeit drugs in distribution.
Blockchain, by its design, is immutable, reliable, and secure. Using this one form of distributed ledger design across the entire healthcare value chain, stakeholders can avoid several challenges and pitfalls.
Waging War Against Counterfeit Drugs with a Blockchain Healthcare Application
Faulty supply chain management is one of the biggest challenges in any industry. Especially, the healthcare sector faces additional risk and complexity.
A compromised supply chain in healthcare means compromised safety of patients. Increased globalization, adoption of technology, and the involvement of multiple stakeholders are the reason for a complicated health supply chain.
Global pharmaceutical sales estimate in the year 2015, USD 1.1 trillion; counterfeit drugs, 2.5 percent.
Blockchain as a Solution.
Blockchain improves integrity, security, and data provenance of the supply chains with its attributes like transparency, immutability, and auditability.
Generally, these stakeholders have their involvement in the dispersal of drugs:
- Manufacturers
- Logistic Service Providers
- Distributors
- Hospitals/Pharmacies
- Patients
Blockchain in Pharma Supply Chain: Re-modeling the Process
Integration of QR Codes and Blockchain
The process of combating counterfeit drugs embarks with, a manufacturer adding QR codes after mass-producing them. The code stores information like the medicines’ name, timestamp, the location of manufacturing, and the expiry date.
A blockchain healthcare application allows users, for instance, developed on the Ethereum blockchain, to trace the transactions during the process using a Hash ID. It is a unique identifier, a long string of letters and numbers used to identify a specific transaction on the blockchain.
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The amalgamation of the Internet of Things (IoT) and distributed ledger (Blockchain)
IoT-enabled vehicles with temperature sensors ship them to the distributors to allow cold-chain shipping.
It saves an enormous amount of time and efforts in auditing the storage conditions of temperature-sensitive drugs. Stakeholders can track anomalies by accessing data produced by the temperature sensors on the blockchain with a mobile or web app.
Dispersal of drugs to hospitals/pharmacies
Drug distributors check the provenance of medicines using the hash ID stored on the blockchain.
Distributors access all the information added by the manufacturers to verify the received drugs and sign the transactions digitally. It triggers smart contracts to enable the delivery of drugs to hospitals/pharmacies.
Collection and authentication of drugs by hospitals/pharmacies
Hospitals/pharmacies validate the authenticity of the received drugs.
Pharmacists use the hash ID to trace back the origin of the drugs, or any activity by the distributors to counterfeit drugs with a fake drug ID.
Upon the approval of drugs by the pharmacist, blockchain would store the transactions and ensure a legal trade.
Authentication of drugs by patients using the QR code
Patients ensure whether the medication they are buying is safe or not via a mobile app. They need to scan the QR code to know its source and quality standards.
Through the hash ID attached to the QR code patients can access all essential details.
Blockchain as a Solution
Blockchain developers can develop blockchain healthcare applications having numerous advanced features.
- Nullify the transactions if the drugs contain fraudulent information
- Prohibit access to unauthorized individuals in the drug supply chain.
- Allow the ecosystem of healthcare stakeholders to track anomalies happened within the transactions immediately
- Enable monitoring of movements involved
Oodles Blockchain also strive to develop efficient blockchain based healthcare applications for pharma supply chains
Our blockchain experts develop such applications on a distributed ledger platform to enable end-to-end traceability of drugs. Clients looking to solve problems like thefts transparency, and recalls in the shipment of medicines can connect with us.
Healthcare blockchain solutions provided by our team of blockchain development experts empower the entire drug supply chain. They equip it with tracing and traceability features of blockchain to transform your pharmaceutical supply chain.
The bottom line
Using a blockchain healthcare application, we can shift the governance model of the drug supply chain to the surveillance net (where every stakeholder can survey the actions in the supply chain in a transparent way).
Source : https://blockchain.oodles.io/blog/blockchain-healthcare-application/