New Delhi, June 13: The Government of India launched a web-portal on Saturday to provide real-time update on availability of critical healthcare supplies. The website - aarogyapath.in - is aimed at bridging the gap between pharmaceutical manufacturers, suppliers and customers. The updates on pharma supplies remains keenly awaited by all stakeholders amid the coronavirus crisis being faced by the nation.

The national healthcare supply chain portal is developed by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), in coordination with with Sarvodaya Infotech. Institutional users and manufacturers, along with authorized suppliers of healthcare essentials are encouraged to register and participate actively.

CSIR expects Aarogyapath to become the national healthcare information platform of choice in the years to come, filling a critical gap in last-mile delivery of patient care within India through improved availability and affordability of healthcare supplies.

The portal is aimed at creating an integrated public platform that provides single-point availability of key healthcare goods and can be helpful to customers in tackling a number of routinely experienced issues.

These issues include dependence on limited suppliers, time-consuming processes to identify good quality products, limited access to suppliers who can supply standardized products at reasonable prices within desired timelines and lack of awareness about the latest product launches, among others.

The portal also helps manufacturers and suppliers to reach a wide network of customers efficiently, overcoming gaps in connectivity between them and potential demand centers like nearby pathological laboratories, medical stores and hospitals.

Aarogyapath, according to CSIR, is also expected to create opportunities for business expansion due to an expanded slate of buyers and visibility of new requirements for products.

Over time, analytics from this platform is expected to generate early signals to manufacturers on over capacity as well as on looming shortages. This would help to reduce wastage of resources due to inefficient forecasting and excess manufacturing, generate awareness about the demand for new technologies.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 13, 2020 03:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).