Blockchain can assist in unlocking the medical supply chain amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus outbreak has put unusual tension on the global supply chain, especially on essential items such as surgical masks and ventilators, to name a few. Regrettably, there is no centralized procurement system to control the medical supply chain, like how central banks manage the financial system centrally.

As the need for medical supplies heads, the Healthcare Systems are still taking their time to check which of the suppliers have credible manufacturing capacities. While new vendors are even attempting to prove themselves due to credibility challenges, on the other hand, the suppliers are also specifying who the credible purchasers are. 

 Blockchain can address trust problems and resolve the medical supply challenges by blockchain in five ways.

Product requirements

There are many standards over the health systems and in many countries, making it astonishing what factories should be producing. Blockchain gives a mechanism for health systems to continuously modernize factories with the latest product specifications and requirements to let them understand what they should provide.

Supplier credibility

There is conjecture over which suppliers can deliver quality equipment at the correct quantity and at the accurate time. Blockchain can assist health systems in distinguishing them by implementing a way to assess factories credibly to recognize which of them produce high-quality products that satisfy the specifications and volumes demanded.

Financial Payments

Factories and freight companies need financial payments upfront, and they also prioritize credible purchase applications. Blockchain technology’s finance mechanism allows a secure way by releasing working capital upon pre-agreed production milestones and as supplies drive to the next step of the supply chain.

Customs Certifications

Customs Certifications have to be verified promptly to enable the rapid transportation of equipment globally. Blockchain-based Customs Certifications have been employed to control the export of various products from wildlife trade to pharmaceuticals, and that can be implemented in the health systems, too.

Transportation tracking

Transport options require to be verified to assure that the right shipments can travel from factories, distribution centers, airports, and to health centers under the right conditions, particularly for pharmaceutical products that want temperature control. Blockchain can support in tracking these items securely for transparency. Blockchain can also be utilized to maintain medical data, inform the citizens, and know symptoms of infection. Mobile and online payment platform Alipay has been operating with Zheijang Provincial Health Commission and the Economy and Information Technology Department to start a blockchain-based platform that tracks the demand and the supply chains of medical supplies following the deficit of facial masks which was amongst the most significant hurdles in China when coronavirus broke out.