Strengthening the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management with Information Communication Technology Intervention

Abstract

Medicines are major elements of modern healthcare systems and have helped significantly to reduce the burden of deaths and diseases all over the globe. Access to these essential medicines is a major need in order to achieve ‘Good Health to All’. Traditionally, India has been a rural, agrarian economy where the majority of the population still live in villages. The main factors which affect the provision of good healthcare among the rural population are affordability, unavailability and average quality of drugs and other medical supplies. The availability and quality of medicines are substandard when compared to the urban population standards. To promote proper utilization of medicines, there is a need for availability and affordability of quality medicines in the presence of ‘rational drug usage’ ideology among the medical professionals and health workers. They play a vital role in imparting the knowledge of drug information to the patient community which in the long run can help in achieving the goal of health to all. This paper showcases the need and emergence of a pharmaceutical supply chain mechanism in the healthcare industry and how it can prove to be the backbone of the present public healthcare system by enhancing it with information communication technology (ICT) implementation. This paper also discusses the problems and resentment faced with the initial introduction of modernized technology into the current healthcare system.