Pfizer Inc. and other leading US pharmaceutical companies have joined the blockchain network for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, the press release reported May 2.
McKesson Corporation, Amerisergen Corporation, Premier Inc. and Pfizer Inc. joined the MediLedger Project Contracting and Chargebacks workgroup.
MediLedger is an initiative of technology company Chronicled Inc., based in San Francisco. – designed to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of data exchange processes by creating a common network. The solution presumably automates the processes of reconciliation and refund of payments.
Chargebacks – canceled or contested transactions – are common in the medial supply chains in the United States, where various actors are involved in payment, including government programs and private insurers.
According to this release, the network has already managed to develop a protocol for the verification of drug return, which complies with the current provisions of the Drugs Supply Chain Security Act 2019. It is assumed that the participants' data will be transmitted only to those trading partners whom they will specifically select, since the platform does not provide a central repository of all data.
Commenting on the collaboration, Chronicled technical director Maurizio Greco said that “we can design [the blockchain system] so that only the license holder can create entries for his own products, for example, this may seem like a simple illustration, but it’s revolutionary. "
The blockchain is gaining momentum in healthcare. Recently, the main provider of medical information technology for the United States. Government, HMS Technologies Inc. (HMS) reported that it is integrating the Solve.Care blockchain platform into its federal initiatives in the field of health information technology. This step aims to reduce public health spending and improve interoperability and accessibility.
In South Korea, Gil Medical Center signed an agreement with the Longenesis medical data trading platform to create a blockchain-based healthcare data management solution. This is said to increase the efficiency of data collection, improve medical research processes and ensure transparent management of patient data.
