TY - JOUR
T1 - Cryptopharmaceuticals: increasing the safety of medication by a blockchain of pharmaceutical products
AU - Nørfeldt, Lasse
AU - Bøtker, Johan
AU - Edinger, Magnus
AU - Genina, Natalja
AU - Rantanen, Jukka
PY - 2019/9
Y1 - 2019/9
N2 - The future health-care system will contain an ever expanding number of digital elements. The data stored both at a centralized health-care level and at a local, patient level (e.g., on a smartphone) will be core elements when deciding treatment strategies in a health-care scenario with Internet of things–based elements. The current way of manufacturing pharmaceutical products and related existing logistic solutions is not ready for such a revolution. One of the key challenges is cybersecurity and related robust public key infrastructure solution. This work introduces one element of a potential solution at a prototype level: the concept of cryptopharmaceuticals where pharmaceutical products are connected in a patient-specific blockchain of individual dosage units. This technology is based on the concept where each produced dosage unit has a unique information-rich pattern. A proof-of-concept smartphone application was applied to demonstrate the visualization of this blockchain at different levels. This includes the manufacturing of the individualized dosage unit, the patient view for his/her personal blockchain, and integration of these products into a health Internet of things system. This unbreakable blockchain of personal medication history will provide means to avoid counterfeit products and to enable innovative logistic solutions.
AB - The future health-care system will contain an ever expanding number of digital elements. The data stored both at a centralized health-care level and at a local, patient level (e.g., on a smartphone) will be core elements when deciding treatment strategies in a health-care scenario with Internet of things–based elements. The current way of manufacturing pharmaceutical products and related existing logistic solutions is not ready for such a revolution. One of the key challenges is cybersecurity and related robust public key infrastructure solution. This work introduces one element of a potential solution at a prototype level: the concept of cryptopharmaceuticals where pharmaceutical products are connected in a patient-specific blockchain of individual dosage units. This technology is based on the concept where each produced dosage unit has a unique information-rich pattern. A proof-of-concept smartphone application was applied to demonstrate the visualization of this blockchain at different levels. This includes the manufacturing of the individualized dosage unit, the patient view for his/her personal blockchain, and integration of these products into a health Internet of things system. This unbreakable blockchain of personal medication history will provide means to avoid counterfeit products and to enable innovative logistic solutions.
KW - app design, blockchain, cryptopharmaceuticals, Internet of Things (IoT), quick response (QR) codes, printed medicine, serialization
U2 - 10.1016/j.xphs.2019.04.025
DO - 10.1016/j.xphs.2019.04.025
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0022-3549
JO - Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
JF - Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
ER -