Is Blockchain an effective tool to fight against Coronavirus?
COVID-19, aka Coronavirus, has killed more than 3,300 people and infected 100,000 in around 85 nations (reporting time). The epidemic has not only wreaked havoc in China, but has put a severe dent on international businesses, tourism, sports & cultural events, and education. The global economies are tumbling again as more cases are emerging, and countries are forced to take drastic steps to prevent the contagion of the disease.
World Health Organization, Chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says,
“This epidemic is a threat to every country, be it rich or poor.”
With smartphones within reach across the majority of the world population, information (whether right or wrong) travels quickly. Centralized authorities, including governments, are forced to being responsible for ensuring that only the right information is passed across all channels.
In case of the past epidemics, rather than the epidemic itself, it was the wrong information which was causing panic in the world. There was no technological solution effective enough to help millions of people around the globe.
Now, the interoperable blockchain solutions have the capability to deal with some of the issues caused by the Coronavirus. With the distributed ledger technology, not only established tech companies but also startups can develop solutions like tracking medical supplies, managing medical data, passing right information, as well as listing the accurate symptoms of infection.
China, which is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, has turned towards the decentralized blockchain technology to not only maintain medical data but track the supply of virus prevention materials as well as public consultation.
According to People’s daily online, in the month of February 2020, there were around 20 blockchain-based applications designed to help the fight against the virus. Most of these apps are designed to manage personal data as many of the citizens are returning to work.
Blockchain solutions developed within China to help fight Coronavirus
In Xi’an, the capital city of Shaanxi Province, a blockchain-based platform is developed for securing managing health records as well as providing online consultation and screening.
Another blockchain-based solution has been developed by Alibaba’s Alipay in collaboration with the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission and the Economy, and the IT Department. The platform helps the charity organizations to not only more efficiently but also effectively collect donations for relief supplies. Furthermore, data related to the demand for medical supplies and its supply chain tracking is done on the platform.
Vastchain Technology in the Hangzhou province has launched a program dubbed as Access Pass. This program generates a QR code that the citizens can use to enter gated communities.
Other blockchain-based solutions developed
Hashlog is a blockchain-based platform developed by Acoer, a Georgia based startup which can easily track and even visualize the coronavirus outbreak. The platform has been developed using the Hedera Hashgraph and offers the healthcare experts and users real-time information of the virus.
With the Hashlog dashboard, doctors, individuals, or even researchers will be able to keep a tab on the spread of the virus. The information is updated from the comprehensive set of data available from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO).
Blockchain-based use-cases to solve issues related to epidemics like Coronavirus
Blockchain has the potential to bring substantial changes in the healthcare industry by making the processes more transparent and easier to trace.
• Supply Chain Management — Companies are suffering from a lack of visibility in maintaining the inventory level to meet the demand.
• Provenance— The global counterfeit drug market size ranges from $75- 200 billion and rising at a tremendous rate. The immutable ledger is considered amongst the most secure system worldwide and can easily track counterfeit drug.
• Drug Safety — Tracing an active pharmaceutical ingredient while a drug is manufactured can be a difficult process. Blockchain as decentralized technology can encrypt, share and control the data across a broad range of industry participants.
Read about the above-mentioned use cases in detail in our ebook — Blockchain in Pharmaceutical.
