Q2U: tracks & analyses medicines per item in supply chain & in end use

Independent, real time authentication, tracking and analytics for individual items of medicine/equipment from manufacture, through supply chain to end use 

Bruce Macmillan, inventor of Q2U 

You are faced by a pandemic or other urgent international medication need with constrained resources, difficult international logistics and emerging knowledge on use, side effects etc. 

How do you optimise supply, maximise learnings, even sub-licence vaccines reliably and rapidly? 

You would be able to do this much better If:

1: you could know: independently, globally, cheaply, easily, instantly and using real time data exactly what is in an individual primary packaged item of medicine/medical equipment, where it came from, where it is right now, how it has got there (e.g. continuous cold chain?) and where and how it is being end used. 

This knowledge could provide huge real time opportunities to optimise and/or redirect supplies to point of most need, anticipate demand, medicine usage and response and many other things - such as controlling fraud, fakes, theft, misuse, deciding who is paying (NGO, State, insurance, personal) at point of end use etc; and

2: any user anywhere could instantly follow today's version of use instructions in their own language and upload real time data about what they had done. Then usage would be safer and more certain and usage learnings would be available to analyse more quickly and more effectively.

The main audiences for Q2U in respect of medicines/medical equipment result from the independent, real time, supply chain transparency induced data quality and certainty that the "primary packaging product passport and audit trail for life" approach of tracing individual items from manufacture to end use provides. It creates an independent aggregated interrogatable data base with huge analytic power for good in many ways. 

The main audiences are:

1: healthcare commissioners: by giving them the tools to optimise their procurement, supply chain management, end use and end use data collection and to aggregate that knowledge with the knowledge of other users for better data analysis

2: end users: the ability to know "any time, any where, any language" exactly what the product is, that it is safe and how to use it with current guidance and how to feed back on use/consequneces/who has paid for it

3: manufacturing and supply chain companies - certainty, transparency, and efficiency of the supply chain; fraud, theft and quality control (e.g. AMR) and meeting ESG goals 

4: researchers, analysts, government - a huge aggregated real time, independent database to draw on for analysis and modelling.

5: ancillary companies e.g. insurers, supply chain finance etc. 

Q2U provides 5 public goods for medicines/equipment and their supply chain:

1: product content authentication and use certainty to all end users in real time and in their language scanning the item's code on the mobile phone app 

2: real time supply chain optimisation and use data to seek to get what is needed, to where it is needed, when it as needed as much as possible

3: supply chain efficiency and honesty - cost reductions, fraud and theft reduction, spotting weaknesses in delivery to reduce both overheads and product prices

4: an effective means of incenting, monitoring and reinforcing good ESG practices throughout supply chains

5: a huge aggregated, independent, unpolitical, global real time medicine use and distribution data store and analysis tool available to all legitimate users for free (end user), for cost recovery (NGO, public health provider, academic), and for consistent commercial terms (manufacturer, retailer, commercial supplier, logistics company, insurer, freight finance).  

This cost approach lets Q2U be a sustainable public good which is also   scalable, developable, and "not for retained profit"  and can leverage working relationships with commercial entities on reasonable terms to develop, deliver and operate the technology upon which Q2U operates quickly and efficiently 

1: a nurse/patient/end user of an item of medicine/medical equipment/ppe - can authenticate product and check instantly, independently, in their language and in real time that it is safe to use and how to use it- all they need is a mobile phone and the code.

2: as a healthcare body, regardless of its own IT resources and systems it can: optimise its supply chain in real time; get feedback on usage: spot: fraud (e.g. dilution creating AMR) theft and problems in logistics flow; buy more efficiently: use data sets much larger than their own ones to research and plan

3: manufacturers and parties within the logistics chain can do the same as the healthcare body and can use the system to set, incentivise, deliver, monitor and reward ESG achievement within their chain

4: healthcare bodies, manufacturers, relevant service suppliers, insurers and financiers can use this data for insurance and financing purposes - improving supply affordability and certainty

5: NGO, states and academic research will have a huge, readily accessible, real time database to analyse - very powerful in a fast moving pandemic

6: most users can authenticate "any individual product item, anywhere, at any time, in real time".

This is a cautious plan. Good engagement and resources could speed it up. 

Year 1: 

a: secure "Founding Participants" (key healthcare, pharmaceutical and other actors along the whole medical supply chain "ecosystem") to: give credibility to the project for suppliers; help to design the data fields and flows; and  participate in the pilots

b: secure and contract with key IT hardware/ software providers

c: scope: build and integration works and scope of pilot (initially simple "end- to- end" supply chain with limited products, participants and geographies)

d: start initial build

Year 2: 

a: complete pilot build and testing

b: run pilot with Founding Participants

c: take learnings, correct, update and increase scope

d: prepare a live beta test across a wider range of participants/products/ countries 

Year 3:

a: run live beta test

b: correct and finalise based on beta

c: develop full launch plan

d: commence staged full global launch by product type, level of product detail covered (e.g. prime ingredient or all ingredients in a test kit) and by geography focusing initially on to be identified medicines, machines, PPE and geographies where maximum short term benefit and learnings can be obtained (e.g. COVID-19 Vaccines, test kits and PPE)   

1: During years 1-3 impact will be measured by delivering the plan detailed above to time, to budget, with good: Founding Participant and supplier engagement: and successful and actioned pilot learnings.

2: On full launch the initial KPI will be speed of adoption and use measures which will be designed as part of the launch plan and focused on those areas that the plan has prioritised

3: After full launch separate KPI and LPI for will be established for each of the tangibly impacted groups listed above. 

A: The KPI and LPI will be be based initially on measures of take up location, frequency of usage and levels of engagement with the tools by each group. 

B: Secondary measures will then be developed to show, as data builds, how users are informing their: use of the tool, their analysis and their decision making.

C: Tertiary measures will then be evolved to demonstrate how that analysis and decision making is delivering change (e.g. better user guidance, more efficient buying, storing and routing of medicine, insights from use, fraud detection)

4: Continuous Improvement and error correction measures for Q2U itself (e.g. for fraud detection and AI query flagging) will also be developed 

1: Q2U needs the right combination of "Founder Participants" from the medical supply chain (manufacturers, commissioners, insurers, logistics) to commit to use it when it is built. 

2:This commitment will make it possible to get the necessary level of supplier commitment to build and to deliver the technology adaptions and integrations needed on a basis that is financially viable (i.e. low up front cost in return for a secure, enduring large volume and reasonable margin commercial return later). 

3: In turn this makes necessary seed funding viable. 

4: Once Q2U is in place then mandating its use by Founder Participants into their supply ecosystems and a concerted stakeholder mapping and communication campaign will give it initial scale - after which the benefits of use will start to become visible making continued use and growth of take up occur more organically. 

5: The Trinity Challenge is giving Q2U the exposure and credibility needed to get Founder Participants, key suppliers and seed funding (please!). It will also help with getting NGO and State endorsement and engagement.

6: Being neutral, independent, transparent, not for retained profit and clearly only for public good should help to overcome political and commercial objections to engagement globally. 

none

The Trinity Challenge has provided the catalyst and the focus to apply Q2U specifically to medicines and their supply chain (as well as to supply chain ESG more generally) and as an enhancement to Serialisation work. 

Especially in the context of a pandemic, it is the strongest use case for Q2U.

The main challenge for Q2U is to get the committed Founding Partner Group that has the detailed data needs knowledge, the procurement power to get the right kind of suppliers to engage willingly, and the "ecosystem power" to mandate that Q2U will be used in their supply chain going forwards to that critical momentum can be achieved.

Trinity Challenge has given me access to the right people, in the right way, at the right time and with the right focus and priority to get the right Founding Partners and suppliers engaged and moving forwards.

It also provides access to essential seed funding to initiate the build phase and has already provided invaluable guidance and input from CHAI and GSK on how best to articulate Q2U in this context.

With the right mentors, the seed funding and the right Founding Partners and suppliers Q2U becomes viable! Thank you Trinity Challenge!

I need "Founding Partners" from across the "User Ecosystem"  to collaborate in: development, delivery, use (operationally and research), raising awareness/ engagement, and seed funding Q2U. 

Most Members could have a mutually valuable role in this ecosystem (but in 200 words I cannot explain Member by Member) - This is why the Challenge is so relevant to Q2U!

The key stakeholders needed in the Founding Partner group are:

1: software partners: design and build Q2U including data warehousing, analysis (including AI), scanner applications, API with third party platforms 

2: hosting partnerships to operate the platform 

3: third party knowledge source partners (e.g. EcoVadis, Nikkei)

These could operate commercially but on a deferred return on investment as indicated above

4: partners to provide further seed loan/grant funding 

5: partners at all supply chain stages from manufacture to end use to design and pilot the data fields and processes and act as the initial launch partners for Q2U - mandating it's use in their "Ecosystems" 

6: research bodies to use the data and shape future design priorities.

7: media and PR bodies and foundations to raise awareness, engagement,  commitment among stakeholders in Q2U's evolving ecosystem.

 Challenge Members are Q2U's Founding Partner User Ecosystem!