August 24, 2020
Contact: Brittany Mizell (brittany@obsidianpr.com)
Brittney Dabney, Office of Communications, Public Relations and Marketing
RemediChain announced today that Tuskegee University is the first historically black college and university among its growing roster of members to join its international consortium of prescription repositories, health care organizations and higher education institutions. As a member of the consortium, Tuskegee will expand RemediChain’s network to track unused medications across the nation, as well as the world, redistribute medication to uninsured and underinsured patients, and safely dispose of everything that cannot be redistributed. Founded under Good Shepherd Pharmacy, RemediChain utilizes cutting-edge blockchain technology to reclaim medications and track prescription waste, while resolving it with data-driven solutions.
“This partnership with RemediChain is substantial for the university,” said Jack Crumbly, associate professor and management department chair at Tuskegee University’s Andrew F. Brimmer College of Business and Information Science. “The use of blockchain technology will catapult our already extensive research into further wins for the pharmaceutical and health industries. And, it has already led to other partnered projects that are in the works with IBM Watson Health and Auburn University involving RemediChain.”
Tuskegee will add to RemediChain’s network organizational “nodes,” by contributing its findings and add to a shared server for collecting and tracking data from donated medications. In addition, Tuskegee will receive access to further research and insight into RemediChain and its partner patients over time.
“There is no better time than now for Tuskegee to join such an innovative collaboration,” said Clayton Yates, professor and director of the Center for Biomedical Research at Tuskegee University. “I hold cancer and health disparities research among African Americans at the epicenter of my work, and this joint effort provides a great opportunity for a historically black university to dive deeper into ways that we can contribute and gain vast knowledge of the field, while providing help to those underserved.”
Since its inception, RemediChain’s network of participating universities has grown to include Lipscomb University, the University of Memphis and the Lebanese-American University. RemediChain has now received more than $5 million worth of donated high-value oral chemotherapy medications, with some already verified and dispensed to patients with proven financial need. Oncology teams in participating states – Tennessee, Texas, Iowa and Virginia – can request specific medications from that donated pool to give to patients who would not otherwise be able to afford their prescriptions. For continued growth within the network and serving more patients, it needs more nodes.
“Not only does Tuskegee provide a wealth of knowledge from its brilliant team, but also an opportunity for collaborative work that combats the universal issue of people lacking necessary medication due to financials,” said Phil Baker, PharmD, CEO of RemediChain. “Joining forces with Tuskegee is a relationship that will expand into even more partnership projects. We look forward to joint projects with IBM Watson Health and Auburn University in the future.”
About Tuskegee University
Located in Tuskegee, Alabama, Tuskegee University is a private, state-related and nationally ranked land-grant institution that serves a racially, ethnically and religiously diverse student body of 3,000-plus students. The institution was founded in 1881 by Booker T. Washington and is one of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges since 1933, Tuskegee’s academic programs — many accredited by their respective accrediting bodies — currently lead to 41 bachelor’s, 16 master’s and five doctoral degree opportunities. For more information about Tuskegee University, visit www.tuskegee.edu.
About RemediChain
RemediChain is a consortium of state-wide prescription reclamation programs and Universities dedicated to studying prescription drug waste and resolving the financial and environmental problems associated with it. RemediChain members post donated prescriptions to a decentralized ledger to create a virtual inventory of donated prescriptions across the country. The RemediChain ledger matches medication donations with vulnerable patients while ensuring the highest levels of traceability and patient safety. The virtual inventory is made available to a national network of facilities dedicated to serving vulnerable patients. For more information, visit www.remedichain.org.
© 2020, Tuskegee University