This exploratory study examines how distributed ledger technologies could be used within the plasma derivatives supply chain. The plasma derivatives are used increasingly in the pharmaceutical market and the supply chain is global. However, there are significant risks relating to the governance of the supply. The risks include unclear origin of plasma and the propagation of contaminated or poorquality blood to the pharmaceutical production process. From an ethical perspective, the risk is that vulnerable individuals are exploited in the donation process. Finally, the plasma supply chain currently depends on only a few exporters of plasma, which presents a supply chain risk. Design: The blockchain technology is piloted in other areas of pharmaceutical supply chainsand in this study we examine those solutions and conceptualize how a similar solution can be applied to the plasma supply chain. We identify risks within the plasma supply chain and discuss how blockchain-based solutions can mitigate those risks.Results: Drawing on existing literature within the pharmaceutical blockchain arena, we introduce a solution to verify the origin of plasma. We also model how the blockchain technology can be used to tackle ethical and supply chain risks.Conclusions: Blockchain can have a role in mitigating plasma supply chain risks. The area is, however, novel and requires more research.

Background Medicine waste in hospitals leads to severe economic loss. This waste emerges for a number of reasons. Medicines are often ordered in too large quantities, which leads to stock expiring without being dispensed. Wastage can also be a consequence of poor management practices. Technical aids, such as automatic dispensers, have been suggested to reduce waste, but they too have shortcomings. Information systems can arguably contribute to waste reduction, but this area has not been widely researched. In this exploratory case study, we scrutinized the management of medicines waste in a hospital from an information systems perspective and examined how information systems are used to manage the medicine supply chain and medicine waste. Our research case was a Finnish university hospital, its central pharmacy, and, more widely, the medicine supply chain within the hospital. Methods This is a qualitative case study, based on data gathered through interviews and a survey and a review of other information sources, including annual reports and other relevant collateral. The study participants included pharmacy staff members and other hospital staff involved in medicine supply. The interviews were conducted in two rounds, first capturing the main themes and then exploring them further in the later study stages. Results The findings outline a picture of unfit technology and inconsistent and unreliable information. This is compensated for by manual practices and processes that cause an excessive administrative burden and ultimately increased wastage. An infrequent ordering process combined with the lack of recycling practices increase the wastage even more. Conclusion Medicine supply and waste management remain a manual administrative task. Inconsistent information and unfit information systems make this task challenging, and the process relies on the medicine supply staff’s experience and assumptions.

Background Finnish community pharmacies have undergone digitalization during the past decade. The introduction of the electronic prescription has had a significant impact on pharmacy workflows, such as the dispensing process. This inevitably has significant sociotechnical implications. We examine the impact of digitalization on the dispensing process and the sociotechnical orientation of a pharmacy. Methods We utilize data collected in customer service situations in Finnish community pharmacies at two points in time: in the traditional workflow, when electronic prescriptions were not in use, and in the new direct dispensing workflow, which is the usual delivery model in the case of electronic prescriptions. We analyze this data in terms of changes in workflow efficiency. We also draw on existing literature to build a conceptual model for digitalization in the pharmacy sector from a sociotechnical standpoint. Results In the Finnish environment, the results, based on our study sample, show that with electronic prescriptions and the direct dispensing model, the delivery time for a single medication over the counter was reduced by 13%. The results also indicate that the process has become more predictable, as the variation in terms of the workflow lead time has decreased. Conclusions The results indicate that the dispensing process has become more efficient in terms of time and throughput as well as more technically oriented and predictable. From a sociotechnical perspective, the results indicate that the technical subsystem has strengthened, and pharmacies have adapted to the new technology in the dispensing process.

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