Save Lives With the Blockchain

Blockchain became known primarily through the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. But the technology has much greater potential. One example is the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. There, the blockchain can be used to monitor cold chains and to fully document the path of medicines and medical products from the manufacturer to the patient.

German companies are increasingly using technologies such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things and big data. However, many companies are not yet able to make friends with the blockchain. This is confirmed by the representative study “On the way to digital worlds” by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Bitkom Research. According to this, only five percent of companies are currently using blockchain, three percent are planning to use it and six percent are still discussing its use. For comparison: three-quarters of the companies surveyed use cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT) almost 25 percent.

This reluctance may be because companies primarily associate blockchain with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and that there is still skepticism regarding data security in use. But blockchain technology offers safe applications, as the life sciences area shows.

Stop counterfeiting of medication

Monitoring supply chains is just one example of an application that is particularly suitable for the use of blockchain technology. An examination by the consulting firm Deloitte shows how necessary monitoring in this area is. According to her, the rate of counterfeiting popular medicines is around 70 percent. The company estimates that around 250,000 to 500,000 patients worldwide are killed by counterfeit drugs.