Saad Ullah
Coronavirus, the world’s most recent pandemic, has managed to infiltrate numerous countries all over the world since it began to spread in the last few months.
In South Korea, infections have risen again recently, taking the total fatalities to 977. Italy and Iran are both doing all they can to contain outbreaks of the virus, as well as Wall Street and London. As of April 14th, 2020, there are a total of 1,998,111 cases, and 126,859 deaths from the virus.
Surprisingly, blockchain technology has been assisting the Chinese government and medical agencies in the battle against this illness. Blockchain is using encrypted data technology to track transactions, data, and records, and between the 1-14 February, at least 20 blockchain-based applications were launched to solve various challenges related to the crisis.
How Can Blockchain Help The World Deal With COVID-19 And Other Pandemics?
Blockchain technology is already regarded highly in the finance sector, but now it is set to become the go-to solution for other industries. Healthcare is the most recent sector to utilize the technology.
The CDC helps maintain public health in the U.S. by sharing information about infectious diseases with state and local health departments. However, carrying out that task in a timely and efficient manner is difficult. This is where blockchain technology can be utilized in order to speed up the entire process, ensure privacy, and strengthen security.
The information that must be shared between departments is sensitive, so the CDC needs to make sure only medical professionals with the proper credentials have access to the data. To ensure tight privacy standards are met, various processes must be carried out, many of which usually have to be performed manually. As time is at a premium when pandemics threaten entire countries, blockchain has the potential to make the process much faster and more efficient.
The Benefits Of Using Blockchain In Healthcare
Blockchain is the first line of rapid defense through a network of connected devices. The technology can benefit the healthcare sectors by:
- Implementing machine learning and artificial intelligence routines that can gather, analyze, and collate data.
- Instantly recommend a course of action should an outbreak occur.
Blockchain is a highly scalable solution that works in real-time, and the speed at which it works will make the difference between quick containment and a global outbreak disaster.
Frank Ricotta, CEO at BurstIQ, had this to say;
Connecting health data sets around the world are becoming increasingly critical to deal with world health issues. From a big picture perspective, enabling collaboration between research organizations, government organizations, and international NGOs is absolutely necessary for the next decade and beyond. Currently a big inhibitor.
Improving Allocation And Donation Of Relief Supplies
Allocation and donation of relief supplies have been a challenge during the outbreak. However, utilizing blockchain technology, Alipay enables the review, recording and tracking of demand, supplies and logistics of epidemic prevention materials with use of their app. This, of course, involves many parties, and security is essential.
Alipay officials confirm that the entire process of record and verification by each party is tamper-proof, enabling anyone to track the process.
Maintaining Patient Privacy
Patient privacy is always a top priority of ethical caregivers. Patients must feel comfortable when sharing critical information with physicians in order for them to receive the correct diagnosis, the best care, and to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases. Blockchain ensures ultimate patient privacy when utilized in this way.
Tracking The Virus
A data visualization tool created by Acoer, ‘HashLog’, is being used to track the virus. This platform interacts in real-time with Hedera Hashgraph’s distributed ledger technology allowing researchers, scientists and journalists to understand the spread of the coronavirus.
Will Blockchain Cure COVID-19 and Other Pandemics?
Blockchain is not a miraculous cure for Coronavirus and other pandemics – however, it can be utilized for various purposes across the healthcare industry, minimizing disease spread and enabling better connectivity where it matters. Governments are finally embracing the use of this disruptive technology, and it is playing a crucial role in how quickly action is taken moving forward.
Ultimately, we will see blockchain used more in the healthcare sector in the future, and this will revolutionize collaboration between various organizations, government and otherwise. While blockchain will not cure world health issues, it’ll be a big player in the speed, quality, and ease of treatment, as well as containment.
Saad Ullah
