Swiss hospitals have announced successful processing on a trial of medical device orders via the Blockchain.
The Cantonal Hospital Winterthur, the Cantonal Hospital Baden, the University Children's Hospital Zurich and the Spitalregion Fürstenland Toggenburg along with two medical device suppliers Anandic System Medical and ITRIS Medical undertook the order trial. The infrastructure was provided by Xatena.
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Present standards of medical device traceability is inefficient and it’s impossible to guarantee trustworthiness. Counterfeit scandals have highlighted the vulnerability of the medical device supply chain and the risk borne by patients.
With the European Union 2017 Medical Device Regulation, all devices require a medical devices a Unique Device Identification number for identification along the supply chain.
The Blockchain system devised by the participating Swiss hospitals enables medical device route tracing. All transaction steps are stored in the Blockchain with common consensus and are immutable. The chain also makes it possible to track all transactions.
The transaction steps in the supply chain are stored in the blockchain in an unchangeable way and with a common consensus. The infrastructure also enables medical device ordering without intermediaries.
Stakeholders said that both technological and regulatory means now exist to put a vision for better patient safety into practice.
Lucie Robson
Source: MedTech Innovation News
Image credit: iStock
