It is a little know fact that technology initiatives often fail in the healthcare industry, stifling innovation. This fallback is credited to the isolated, fragmented, and guarded nature of the industry. While it may be easy to overlook in our day-to-day lives, I was reminded of this mentality when I asked Medochemie about their approach to integrating Blockchain and other Internet of Things (IoTs) technology in Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) for Quality Assurance.
While I was not expecting them to have had a plan of attack already underway, I was hoping to gain further insight into how they were approaching emerging technologies. However, contrary to my expectation none of the three representatives at Medochemie were aware of what blockchain or other IoTs were. This was extremely disappointing to me because Cyprus is renowned for its investment in developing Blockchain educational modules at the University of Nicosia and plays a large regulatory role in the European Union. As such, Mecochemie’s inability to comprehend my question highlights an endemic gap between technological advancements and medicine. The inability to the wide acceptance of technology is reinforced by my personal experiences in doctors’ offices that did not have Electronic Medical Record systems, and often misplaced paper patient files.
Furthermore, when it came to supply chain management, I was dismayed that they did not employ machine learning forecasting to determine market needs and safety stock. With that being said, it was interesting learning how they use market need and drug price to determine safety stock.
On a more positive note, I admired Medochemie’s commitment to quality assurance because it significantly minimizes risk from human errors. I thought that it was an ingenious idea to keep a sample of each batch produced for accountability purposes from a legal and clinical level. While I had heard about the incidents regarding the tuberculosis contamination in vaccines and thalidomide tragedy. I had never considered how both of these incidents and more could have been prevented through more extensive quality assurance procedures.
Moreover, in their warehouse, I liked how Medochemie employed technology to optimize space by stacking crates on shelves and allowing the shelves to move to create “hallways”. This technique has a allowed Medochemie to use their warehouse space up to 73% more efficiently.
Being a global distributor, I was intrigued by how Medochemie interacted with different countries’ governments and healthcare sectors to deliver medication. When I asked them about it, they outlined the three types of customers they have: tenders , exporters, and third party distributors. The price of certain medications is regulated by the Reimbursement list, which elucidates what drugs the country decides the price for and which drugs individual companies can decide the price for.
Overall, this experience at Medochemie reminded me that I chose to major in bioengineering to serve as a bridge between clinical care and technology. Having even a minimal background in IoTs significantly expanded my frame of reference and enabled me to conceptually pursue more solutions to pressing issues.