The global market for medical device technologies reached nearly $521.2 billion in 2017 and should reach $674.5 billion by 2022, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3% for the period of 2017-2022, according to ReportLinker. FDA also requires that certain medical devices be tracked from the time they are manufactured to distribution in order to locate the devices promptly in case of a recall of a device that can pose serious risk to health. Additionally, hospitals are spending about $10 million more a year in the supply chain than is necessary, according to a new Navigant study.
These trends and statistics indicate a gap as well as an opportunity to assist with narrowing the ever increasing spend in US healthcare, specifically with reference to the medical device industry while keeping in mind some minor inconsistencies in the current medical device supply chain which relies on disparate and untimely voice/fax communications. Synthium health identified a dire need to transition into event driven and proactive planning model to address the gap.
Hence, Smart Contract Management Platform (SCMP) which provides both physical and virtual visibility from the Manufacturer through GPO→Distributor→ 3PL all the way to the Point of Care, leveraging Blockchain technology. Synthium recently presented this MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to one of the top 25 medical device manufacturers. Having agreed with the features/benefits that the platform has to offer, they have proposed to take the identified synergies, to the next level in January 2019. Synthium continues to enhancements/update the platform in the interim.
Why Synthium SCMP (Smart Contract Management Platform)?
Smart Contract utilizes the Blockchain technology, few of the benefits include:
* Savings on Discounts – With Synthium’s SCM Platform, a Hospital gain the ability to monitor it’s spend on certain healthcare contracted products, to achieve tier based discounts, earliest. This visibility can help the hospitals drive the savings to add significant dollars to their bottom line. For example, a mere 2% gain in overall tier level discounts can produce over $400K for a hospital with a $20 million supplies spend budget.
* Effective Surgery Scheduling – Proactive planning by utilizing Synthium SCMP will tend to reduce delays in surgeries resulting in savings for every involved entity, either directly or indirectly. The impacted not only include the hospitals but also patients, surgeons, manufacturers, medical device sales reps, etc.
* Audit Trail Capabilities:
- Suppliers and GPOs generally do not have the ability to track who is purchasing what. The expected rewards/commissions are also unknown until the required reporting is provided by the concerned party. This could take several months. Synthium’s smart contract gives the visibility in near real time.
- The ability to track a medical device, especially a failed or defective product, gives the manufacturers and other involved parties such as insurance companies (as proposed by Medicare), the visibility into the refund of the same. Thus, enabling them to claim their portion of reimbursement for the amount already advanced to hospitals/surgery centers.
- Product recalls is another area that this platform can assist with. Any recall can be traced (from origin to destination) by using Synthium Platform.
Synthium is an intelligent, blockchain enabled healthcare technology platform that addresses supply chain participants in Health Industry by seamlessly linking Manufacturers, GPOs, Distributors and Providers. Synthium saves healthcare providers time, money and effort to procure products at best active price and just-in-time delivery while keeping track of transactions and charge-backs. For Manufacturers, GPOs and Distributors, Synthium provides a transparent platform to maintain, update and track all transactions from RFQs, sourcing to settlement and enables on-demand reporting.
Additionally, there are other benefits such as RFQ management, medical sales rep management, analytics, etc. to join the platform. Learn how Synthium can benefit you, schedule a demo, and please contact us: https://www.synthiumhealth.com/contact/ or https://calendly.com/synthium/30min.
