Development of a Rapid Response Online Product Marketplace

Abstract The coronavirus pandemic has exposed deficiencies of global supply chains in rapidly responding to urgent medical needs and demonstrated the challenge of promptly acquiring medical supplies during emergencies. Even under policy tools and using existing online alternatives, being able to promptly acquire medical supplies, including personal protective equipment and medical devices, is still a concern for future emergency situations. Hence, the details for an open, extensible, service-oriented cloud platform that enables the rapid matchmaking between consumers and manufacturers in emergency situations is presented in this work. More specifically, the system architecture deployed for the platform, along with the details of its main components are discussed. In addition, the results of implementing a simplified prototype of the platform, where a healthcare worker is using the online product marketplace to make an order for a replacement part of a respirator mask, are also briefly demonstrated. By using this online product marketplace, manufacturers will benefit from improved accessibility to their products, services, and manufacturing resources (even under normal operations), while consumers will gain unprecedented access to existing products and manufacturing resources. The platform also has the potential to improve the nation’s ability to prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemics or other emergency events.