Transformation Of Pharma Supply Chain And Lessons Learned From The Pandemic And Future Of Medical Technologies

Authors of the byline

•                     Dr Adithya D Shetty, Assistant Professor - Senior Scale, Department of Commerce, Manipal Academy of Higher Education

•                     Dr D Sreedhar, Associate Professor Senior Scale, Department of Pharmacy Management, Manipal Academy of Higher Education

•                     Dr Sandeep S Shenoy, Head, Department of Commerce, Director, Compliance, Manipal Academy of Higher Education

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we witnessed the vulnerabilities of current supply chain models operated by industries and countries. It has forced the companies and countries to transform their supply chain for the benefit of their growth and economy. The logistics sector in India is said to be evolving keeping pace with the developed world. However, it is considered ineffective due to the lack of integration of transportation and the location of warehouses. The dearth of trained workforce, differences in regulations at national, state and district added fuel to the fire. One of the unique things about the Export-Import Policy of India is that it is updated every year and the amendments would come to effect 1st of April every year.

As we know that logistics are not restricted to just goods and services but also deals with the transportation of the required workforce. Any disruption in logistics leads to a stalemate of all the activities. It was evident from the cut-off of supplies from China. China being the world’s factory for many goods, short supplies were observed globally. Due to lockdown and restricted movement of vehicles, the supply of healthcare delivery has also been affected. Shortage in supplies of essential things like sanitizer, protective gear, medical equipment, medicines, testing kits, and vaccines have disrupted the smooth function of healthcare delivery in the country. However, direct measures were taken to tackle the pandemic with certain innovations in technologies and refining the supply chain models.

The covid-19 pandemic has fast-tracked innovation and has laid the foundation in transforming the healthcare sector. As we know technology is pervasive throughout healthcare delivery. The industry is progressing in every possible way to provide better services to patients virtually, by analyzing, predicting, and preventing diseases. The technologies are effective in providing rapid analytics that can be disseminated to rural or less populated areas and enhance the life expectancy of patients. Among the innovations provoking change, telemedicine, virtual health, cloud-based technologies, artificial intelligence, collaboration, and virtual reality have accelerated transformations in healthcare delivery. The introduction of telemedicine has made healthcare more convenient during the pandemic. It provides contactless online consultation for the patients and enabled the reach of healthcare to both the rural and urban population.

Therefore, telemedicine is one of the effective technologies which is providing medical aid during the Covid-19 pandemic uninterruptedly. Modern healthcare is focusing more on combining the internet of Things with telemedicine which helps the doctors to track and trace the variations of health patterns among the patients. Wearable smart devices which are connected through mobile apps are used to read the health history of the individuals and provide alert messages in case of health risk. The adoption of artificial intelligence has improved the quality of medical services. The technology brought in a new dimension to diagnose diseases, predict epidemic outbreaks, and improve operational efficiency by integrating the data and analyses. The information generated out of integrated data is used effectively to create better treatment plans.

Blockchain technology encrypts medical records and facilitates instant and secured access to data. Blockchain maintains a distributed ledger for all the transactions and provides real-time data support for the movement of drugs within the medical network. Hence the adoption of modern technologies in the healthcare industry reshapes the operational environment and increases productivity by extending the services through virtual mode and the impact of coronavirus has been felt across the globe and affected significantly all the sectors. The logistics landscape has changed and demanded robust technology that can sustain pandemics. Companies and countries that began investing in strengthening their supply chain will be best positioned on the global map.