Specialty Medication Delivery Platform

A cold-chain delivery orchestration system for high-value, temperature-sensitive medications. Three products coordinating pharmacies, fulfillment centers, and couriers where a single failed delivery can waste $5,000–$50,000 in product and missed treatment.

problem

This platform was designed around a single, expensive reality I witnessed repeatedly at McKesson Specialty Health: when a temperature-sensitive medication worth $50,000 arrives two degrees too warm, no one can undo it. The product is destroyed. The patient doesn't get their treatment. And the failure was preventable — if anyone had been watching. I followed a single delivery order through its entire lifecycle and found a coordination problem masquerading as a logistics problem. Pharmacy staff didn't know what fulfillment had prioritized. Coordinators spent three hours daily reconciling spreadsheets. Couriers chose their own stop sequences. Temperature was logged at pickup and never monitored again until delivery. The constraints are unlike standard logistics: cold-chain temperature windows measured in hours, fixed fulfillment cutoffs at 10 AM and 2 PM, per-unit costs that make every failed delivery a five-figure write-off, and zero tolerance for ambiguity about where an order is and what temperature it's at.

solution

Three integrated products designed around one failure-mode philosophy: if something goes wrong, it gets louder, not quieter. Pharmacy Platform — Barcode-verified order preparation with cold-chain packaging validation. Staff scan each item against the order manifest and confirm packaging type matches the temperature requirement. No silent mismatches. Fulfillment Platform — AI-assisted run planning that respects temperature windows and cutoff times. Real-time IoT temperature monitoring via Bluetooth sensors in every shipment container. Demand forecasting to pre-position inventory. When a temperature excursion begins, the system alerts before the threshold is breached — not after. Courier Mobile App — Offline-capable route execution for areas with poor connectivity. Proof-of-delivery capture with photo, signature, and GPS. Bluetooth pairing with temperature sensors for continuous in-transit monitoring. Optimized stop sequencing that accounts for temperature-sensitive items first.

Story

year

2026

timeframe

In progress, expected Spring 2027

tools

Backend: PostgreSQL, REST APIs, Azure Mobile: Swift (iOS), Kotlin (Android) IoT: Bluetooth Low Energy sensor integration, real-time telemetry AI/ML: Demand forecasting, route optimization Design & Documentation: Figma, Confluence Project Management: Jira