IN2DAFNE: Innovation that Helps Patients
The IN2DAFNE project launched on October 27th via livestream from the IBM Garage in Milan.
The project is born out of a concrete demand within the pharma supply chain to provide a hi-tech solution to tackle the problem of limited-supply and out-of-stock medicine. Once again, Intesa has played its part as technology partner for the DAFNE Consortium with the launch of the IN2DAFNE project.
Technological innovation achieves its most profound purpose when it is generates benefits on a wide scale: this is what has been happening with the IN2DAFNE project developed by the DAFNE Consortium in collaboration with Intesa (IBM Group).
Through IN2DAFNE, indeed, all of those up and down the healthcare supply chain (manufacturers, wholesalers, and supervisory institutions), will have, for the first time ever, a 360-degree vantage point over the distribution of pharmaceuticals across different regions. As a consequence, the problem of limited- and out-of-stock medication will be drastically reduced. Here are the details.
The Demands on the Supply Chain
The impetus behind the IN2DAFNE project is a well-known, and widespread need within the pharmaceutical industry, where the key players include drug manufacturers, distributors, and institutional supervisors.
The issue with limited and out-of-stock medication is a very topical one, and one on the rise, not just in Italy, but across the globe. The situation has been aggravated by the fact that players along the healthcare production chain, and within those institutions tasked with monitoring it, have an only partial view of the amount of medicine available within the supply chain at large.
This is an issue of transparency, trust, and confidentiality in terms of data being shared amongst players within the supply chain. Now, thanks to blockchain technology, smart contracts, and private data, that problem can finally be solved.
The IN2DAFNE Objective
A key objective of the IN2DAFNE project is allowing all parties within the supply chain to access an “elevation” of the information they need, based on their own role, with the assurance of anonymous and aggregated data.
Blockchain and private-data technologies ensure secure data sharing, obviating the need for intermediaries to hold the information, and to ensure proper distribution of the same.
Thanks to IN2DAFNE, therefore, manufacturers will have a complete snapshot of the distribution of their pharmaceuticals throughout the country, with the possibility of remodulating their distribution plans based on actual historical figures.
Intermediate distributors will be able to view information relating to the overall availability of the individual medicines with the supply chain at large. They will be able to rearrange their operations and to adjust their policies accordingly.
Finally, the institutions tasked with monitoring these operations will be able to see the availability, or lack thereof, of medicines in each region, and can thus count on an additional instrument, one that is both reliable and up to date, to provide an alert on limited-stock situations.
Intesa’s role in the project
Intesa is the DAFNE Consortium’s technology partner for all the principal digitalisation projects for this supply chain, providing support to the IN2DAFNE project through innovative digital services provided according to a co-innovation model that the company has, for many years, been using with the Consortium. “The DAFNE Consortium can retain control over project governance without thereby having to rely on a third party to act as guarantor” explained Pietro Lanza as part of the project launch. “Blockchain, Distributed Ledgers and Smart Contracts now give us the possibility of tackling a long-standing problem that has, until now, evaded a solution, in an innovative way”.
A recording of the event, held at the IBM Garage in Milan, is available here.
