Design and Development of Blockchain Integrated IoT System for Pharmaceutical Applications

The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in the pharmaceutical industry has the potential to bring about significant advancements and improvements, particularly in areas like supply chain management, drug discovery, and patient monitoring. By leveraging IoT technology in these ways, the pharmaceutical industry can enhance efficiency, improve product quality, ensure patient safety, and mitigate the risks associated with counterfeit drugs in the market. However, it was essential to address cybersecurity concerns to safeguard sensitive data and maintain the integrity of the IoT ecosystem in healthcare. The concept of integrating IoT with blockchain in the pharmaceutical supply chain is indeed a powerful solution to address the challenges faced by the industry, particularly in supply chain management and the prevention of counterfeit drugs. Integrating IoT with blockchain technology also results in many advantages like accurate location tracking, real-time updates and visibility, counterfeit prevention, timely delivery to customers, environmental parameter control, expiry date monitoring, pharmaceutical warehouse management, automated decision making and many more. By combining the strengths of IoT and blockchain, the pharmaceutical industry can build a robust and secure supply chain ecosystem. This integrated approach not only enhances transparency and traceability but also addresses critical issues such as counterfeiting by ensuring the delivery of safe and authentic pharmaceutical products to consumers. Environmental parameters are also monitored in a warehouse to avoid spoilage of medicines. The date of expiry of medicines and related equipment are monitored and categorized into three levels such as discard the medicines if expired, near to expiry if the expiry date is nearer and store in the warehouse if the date of expiry is far, and a message is sent accordingly to the supervisor for necessary action.