E-DRUG: Technology to Strengthen Health Services, Protect Privacy & Improve Medicine Quality
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How the Technology Behind Bitcoin can Strengthen Health Services, Protect Patient Privacy, and Improve Trust in Medicine Quality
Blockchain is the hot new technology topic in the financial world, the health sector
and the supply chain industry.
The idea, first applied by the virtual “cryptocurrency” Bitcoin
combines the security of cryptography with the safety of distributed data.
This combination results in distributed ledger technology (DLT) that is highly secure and very difficult to hack because there is no central server containing all data
that needs to be protected; everyone with rights to access the blockchain
has visibility into the transactions that affect them.
Blockchain technology has a variety of applications in health,
not least of which are medicine traceability and patient data management.
This is just as true for the US domestic health sector as it is for health
systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Counterfeit drugs are a scourge in virtually every
country, but nowhere is the problem more acute than in LMICs where
regulatory agencies are poorly financed and under equipped to police the
market. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are concerned about lost revenue but
also about reputational risk when counterfeits are used and cause spikes in
adverse reactions or poor treatment outcomes. Suppliers can't trace their
products beyond the primary purchaser (typically a wholesaler), small
retailers can't be sure of the integrity of their suppliers, and people who
buy medicines on the retail market cannot be certain if they are getting
the real thing. Blockchain technology can provide the transparency and
accountability needed to ensure the integrity of every medicine and every
transaction that moves it from where it's manufactured to where it's
dispensed to the patient.
Read the entire blog on JSI's The Pump:
Chris Wright
JSI
Chris Wright <chris_wright@jsi.com>