Serialization of drugs is the process of assigning unique numbers to each unit of prescription product, which contains information about the product's origin, batch number and expiration date.
Published in Chapter:
Blockchain Reinventing the Healthcare Industry: Use Cases and Applications
Vijayaraghavan Varadharajan (Infosys Ltd, India), Divik Bansal (Infosys Ltd, India), Sanal J. Nair (Infosys Ltd, India), and Rian Leevinson J (Infosys Ltd, India)
Copyright: © 2021
|Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-6650-3.ch013
Abstract
The fragmented and disorganized nature of data in healthcare poses a variety of challenges to scientific research and medical applications. This mainly stems from the lack of traceability of transactions, complex disconnected networks, and lack of data interoperability. This complexity leads to difficulties in conducting research and clinical trials, and to the problem of counterfeit drugs in the market. This triggers lack of availability and accessibility of data for researchers and medical experts. Blockchain technology offers comprehensive solutions to these problems, and hence it has been of enormous interest in the healthcare sector. Blockchain technology with its innate transparency, traceability, data security, and distributed nature can help to overcome the data related problems in healthcare. This chapter provides an overview of the use of blockchain in the healthcare industry and explores various use-cases and applications. This chapter also discusses case-studies and various challenges faced while adapting blockchain in the healthcare industry.