Tag: Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory compliance refers to a company’s adherence to business related laws, regulations, guidelines and specifications relevant to its vertical.

How does blockchain make healthcare more accessible?

Blockchain was, in some sense, designed to connect the world. The creator saw how the world was shifting its attention to the digital sphere, rather than the offline one. Pretty much any industry you can imagine currently, has a foothold online and therefore, is subject to influence from blockchain.

Currently, blockchain is seen as a place to make money through trading cryptocurrency. But it needs to be considered that the technology is an amazing way to connect people to knowledge they never had. But no matter how one may look at it, blockchain is a way to provide people with means of payment that is decentralized and accessible.

Blockchain means more healthcare options for developing countries

Healthcare in developed countries is much better than developing countries, that argument cannot be debated. Sure you can bring the USA as an example, but this argument is focusing on quality rather than price.

Developing countries sometimes suffer from a lack of experienced individuals or general funding for various medical fields. Therefore, the population is forced to either spend their entire life’s savings abroad or gamble with their health locally. Blockchain is probably the best solution here as it is able to provide various options for these countries.

A coin for healthcare?

There may have been several coins that came out specifically designed to be used in the healthcare industry. However, having a country back one single coin designed for healthcare would be advantageous.

This project would not be successful without significant subsidies, unfortunately. Offering healthcare services for these coins would need to have special prices that are lower, but offer the same advantages.

So why is this coin better than just normal money? Inflation. Inflation is the best answer to this question, as the coin will become immune to it. Inflation usually happens due to governments constantly printing more and more money to cover debt and various other bills. This devalues the already existing currency and before long makes it obsolete. However, according to experts at ForexNewsNow, cryptocurrencies are never “printed additionally”. The only change that the inflation ratio of a cryptocurrency can suffer is the “burning of coins” when the creators destroy a significant percentage of the coin to adjust the price.

How this helps developing countries

Developing countries would benefit from this immensely as their currency issue would be put on hold. For example, look at Eastern European countries and their currencies, there are 2 completely different pictures within just a couple of years. The country of Ukraine had its currency depreciate relative to the dollar by no less than 4 times. Same for the Republic of Georgia, where they saw their currency depreciate by more than 2 times over a period of 4 years. It can be easily seen that a Ukrainian who used to have $2,000 salary was able to utilize healthcare in Western Europe without too many problems, but right now, it would be impossible with their $500 salary.

Cryptocurrency would be an amazing way to subsidize this matter. But guarantees about the stability of the coin need to be enforced. Well, it can just be made into a stablecoin. This guarantees that these coins, no matter what happens to the currency, remain equal to $1.

This would most likely find a largely positive reaction from the international community, which will further popularize the coin and make it even more useful in various segments of the healthcare industry.

Future prospects and potential problems

However, this is just one option that could benefit everybody. There are numerous other ways cryptocurrencies and blockchain can be used to develop healthcare. One of which is the utilization of blockchain for storing relative data for the industry professionals. But no matter what is done to reinforce the idea of blockchain in healthcare, the technology needs to be given an ample regulatory framework. However, these regulatory frameworks may damage the whole essence of blockchain. The stablecoins may be able to avoid any serious ramifications, but given the fact that governments are terrified of cryptos, it is just empty hope.

Governments have their own reasons why they are scrambling to regulate cryptocurrency. The healthcare industry also plays a large role in these fears as governments try to avoid any unlicensed entities to provide healthcare services. In order to solve the problem of mass centralization, the core issues with the fear towards cryptocurrencies need to be addressed. Fortunately for the crypto community, most of those fears are currently disclosed.

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FarmaTrust Preventing Counterfeit Pharmacy Drugs by Using Blockchain & A.I. for Compliance Tracking

Designed primarily to prevent the ever-present problem of counterfeit drugs, FarmaTrust’s Zoi platform helps ensure secure transport of medical products around the world. This unique blockchain approach uses tokens and machine learning to track and validate shipments through every phase of delivery.

FarmaTrust- blockchain & A.I. for pharmacy compliance tracking

Headquartered in London, England, FarmaTrust works with a range of pharmaceutical companies and regulatory government agencies to create and maintain software that actively meets the challenge of the ever-evolving pharmaceutical industry. Healthcare continues to grow globally, with medical pharmaceuticals regularly made or packaged in one country for sale and use in another. Counterfeit drugs continues to be a problem, especially in developing nations where an estimated 10-30% of drugs for sale in drug stores are in fact counterfeit. The problem of counterfeit drugs lies almost entirely in packaging, transport, and local government regulations when it comes to tracking and validating drugs. Fake drugs kill people, often especially the most vulnerable, who receive fake medicine they believe will help them – but it won’t.

FarmaTrust exists to respond to this threat with an innovative approach to pharmaceutical tracking, using blockchain and machine learning for one solution that works equally around the globe.

Solution

FarmaTrust’s approach uses blockchain technology in the form of FarmaTrust’s Compliance Tracking Coin (CT). Each genuine packet of drugs receives a unique key ID. At each stage of the journey, a secure, encrypted log tracks each movement and every transfer, so that shippers and sellers alike know at each stage what this drug is, where it came from, and where it has been every step of the way. Encrypted blockchain tech makes it possible for each packet of drugs to have an easily-accessible, global record that can’t be faked, that gets indelibly stamped at each stage of its journey.

In addition to keeping drug data accurate and secure, Farma Trust provides easy access in the form of on-demand reports which can be formatted on the fly for import and export from and to accounting and shipping software as needed. After all, the best tracking software in the world won’t be much help if relevant parties can’t get the information when they need it most, such as to confirm receipt and verify accurate shipment. Smart machine tech helps to perform the background work needed to validate data, to ensure that different systems can intelligently talk, and to quickly retrieve accurate, usable information.

Finally, aware of the different regulations around the world, FarmaTrust often works with local governments in a mutually-beneficial way to keep up with the latest regulations and to make constructive suggestions about how to improve the quality of pharmaceutical security.

Target Businesses

FarmaTrust works regularly with a range of partners at every stage of drug manufacture, delivery, and sale. These include:

  1. Manufacturers. FarmaTrust’s Zoi platform helps manufacturers to clearly label and track their products. Especially for manufacturers, blockchain tech provides manufacturers with accurate, real-time updates related to actual shipment and sales, providing valuable data that they can use to help plan current production schedules.
  2. Third Party Logistics/Shippers. Because the Zoi platform tracks drugs by individual packet and not just by lot, FarmaTrust can give logistics partners a clearer, more detailed picture when it comes to shipments. This information can prove key to local government regulations and to giving logistics partners the information they need to pass on to interested parties on all sides of the supply chain.
  3. Wholesalers & Retailers. Finally, FarmaTrust also works with those who sell medical pharmaceuticals across a range of markets. For these business partners, the Zoi platform gives sellers the assurance that they will have a correct, valid product to offer their customers. In addition, FarmaTrust’s global network can make it easier and far more cost-efficient to get the products they need most.

If you’re looking for an innovative approach to the pharmaceutical industry, one which will help you stay compliant with government regulations and help you secure your product at every stage from manufacture to the hands of consumers, then FarmaTrust presents a clear opportunity. If you’d like to know more about blockchain tech and the healthcare industry, contact us today and follow our series on blockchain solutions.

What to expect at next year’s APAC Blockchain Conference

Next spring, technologists, business process experts, and forward-thinking industry leaders from around the world will convene at the University of Technology Sydney for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) Blockchain Conference 2017. Developed in partnership with the Australian Digital Currency Commerce Association (ADCCA), this two-day event aims to “look beyond the hype” of blockchain technology and to focus instead on real opportunities for cost-saving implementations across a broad array of industries. An impressively diverse panel of experts will weigh in, not only on the disruptive potential for blockchain technologies to improve business processes, but also on the various obstacles that remain to be overcome before widespread adoption and realistic implementation can begin.

APAC Blockchain Conference

Although this conference is not specifically focused on the healthcare sector, there are a number of things on the agenda to be excited about for those interested in healthcare applications of blockchain technology. The first day of the conference is a plenary session in which panelists and keynote speakers will address such topics as:

  • The latest real-world applications of smart contracts, highlighting those that move beyond mere regulatory compliance, product tracing, and service management.
  • Design challenges currently hindering widespread blockchain adoption, including network integrity, distributed power, security, and rights preservation.
  • The emerging need for skilled workers to make sure organizations remain competitive in the coming age of blockchain disruption.

Ways blockchain technology may reshape local and global economic markets and the way private industry responds to the new contours of supply and demand in a world of distributed process automation.
The regulatory framework necessary for organizations to embrace blockchain solutions and the responsibility of corporate entities to ensure adequate internal controls over open source technologies to reduce risk exposure in highly regulated industries.

On day two, there will be two separate streaming sessions offered, and participants will have their choice of which to attend. Stream 1 focuses on banking and financial applications, while Stream 2–the one more likely to appeal to healthcare organizations–focuses on government, smart contracts, and industry applications. There are a number of topics in this latter stream that sound promising:

  • Blockchain solutions for verifying and storing medical records and proving identities.
  • Real-world security and anti-fraud applications, including some that may be relevant to regulatory compliance in healthcare services for protecting sensitive patient data.
  • The potential for distributed data processing to reduce or eliminate human links in organizational structures–including, presumably, in healthcare organizations and those they do business with, such as insurance companies and government oversight agencies.
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