ABSTRACT
Today, the world is going through one of the most treacherous and ubiquitous pandemics of modern times. Lives, work, and health of people have been disturbed in innumerable ways, and healthcare industry and systems are fronting the ultimate test. Pandemic COVID-19 has manifested the limitations in the production and distribution of critical medical goods and also brought into spotlight the issues that arise due to the dependency of countries on foreign supply. Until recent times, solutions with respect to comprehensive accounting and tracing products and services were remote possibilities. Present pandemic crises exposed many limitations and shortcomings in certain methods and processes across all industries. The desperate requirement for better quality pharmaceutical and healthcare supply chain management and tracing systems has become a need of an hour. In recent times, most of the medical and pharmaceutical supply chains are facing substantial logistical complexities with respect to different domains including lack of visibility into real-time shipment locations, unpredictive weather and other transport interventions, quality of goods, verification, tracking and tracing, report of customs across country borders, and intricate payments and invoicing. However, we are now slowly approaching toward a kind of technologies that could overhaul methods and prove to be a turning point. These technological innovations could assist us in faster manufacture of and access to critical medicine, leading us toward transparent and more secure healthier coming years. Blockchain is a unique and perfectly suited technology to address these stumbling blocks. Blockchain will play a pivotal role in enabling companies to build blockchain solutions seamlessly given its preparedness and cost viability. A blockchain-enabled supply chain shall accurately, transparently, and effectively track and trace each step of every SKU (stock keeping unit). This chapter is a sincere effort to understand the usability of blockchain technology in medical supply chain and to explore the domains where this technology can bring revolution along with its merits and shortcomings.
