The current times are a great challenge for humanity in terms of health. It is no secret to anyone that the Coronavirus pandemic has called into question many health systems.
However, the solution of the post-COVID19 times seems to have an essential ally in Blockchain technology. Its use has been demonstrated with the multiple options currently running in various sectors of daily life: decentralized finance, recreation, food traceability, and clinical data management. The health system will especially be one of the most radical changes required to cope with the current situation and similar future events.
The use of the blockchain in the health system is undoubtedly a great ally for this crucial fight against pandemic situations. Its decentralized technology will allow not only to be more efficient than traditional care systems but also to be more secure and powerful in its timely response to new requirements and claims.
Imagine that with a simple QR code or an ENS address, you can achieve immediate and remote access to your clinical data safely and transparently, at the same time that you decide with whom and when to share it.
Due to the immutability of the blockchain and its non-centralized, distributed capacity in a single entity, efficient management of clinical data with Blockchain technology is possible to fight against disease and complicated situations such as those we are currently experiencing.
The use of blockchain networks allows the data provided to be public knowledge and unalterable, thus ensuring transparency of the data.
In this sense, it is possible to find a tremendous explosion of use cases in the blockchain sphere using disruptive technology to efficiently track, follow, and treat potential patients with the coronavirus. The medical records of thousands of patients in healthcare institutions that cost governments worldwide millions of dollars a year for the bureaucratic process that their management represents.
Exemplary cases are currently found in several countries. In the FLETA case, even in times before the pandemic, we have developed an efficient clinical data management system with Seoul ST. Mary’s Hospital and the South Korean government supported the project.
More recently, there is the MiPasa project developed by IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft together with Johns Hopkins University and the World Health Organization to use powerful analysis and privacy tools available to everyone.
Health Passports and Telemedicine with Blockchain
But the development of Blockchain technology does not stop there. The technology guarantees the efficient, controlled, and safe reopening of millions of people voluntarily isolated by the pandemic.
Digital health passports like Hi + Card have become a reality that until recently was unthinkable.
With a global economic recession due to the pandemic, Blockchain technology’s use to revive critical sectors in Europe is beginning to pay off.
And in that sense, the Hi + Card APP developed in Spain to boost the tourism and aviation sectors worldwide in post COVID19 times is getting global attention.
With digital immunity health passports, users will be able to move freely through the different checkpoints arranged worldwide due to the coronavirus crisis.
The mobile application stores medical records encrypted in the blockchain, creating a unique profile for each user with the legal digital ID issued by a National Authority, a healthcare entity uploading medical information about the patient without the possibility of alteration.
The use of blockchain technology in the medical field is expanding rapidly, and solutions such as telemedicine, where doctors participate by publishing their profiles, rates, availability, and acceptance of appointments to receive compensation in cryptocurrencies, are already beginning to be noticed,
Besides, the proposed Telemedicine cases such as Solve.Care, for example, also allow medical records and transactions to be carried out securely and decentralized on the blockchain to avoid manipulation of private data.
On the other hand, the pharmaceutical industry is not far behind. Thanks to the development of blockchain protocols, it is possible to combat pharmaceutical products’ counterfeiting, as is the case proposed by Portland State University in the United States.
Using the blockchain to prevent counterfeit products from filling the market is arguably a great example of how blockchain can help the healthcare system save exorbitant costs for health care due to the intake of fake medicine in chronic patients.
Finally, blockchain and other disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and Machine Learning will be the fundamental basis of medical care in the coming years.
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About FLETA
FLETA is a blockchain platform that aims to offer infrastructure that can be applied to real-world business models. FLETA has its own core blockchain technologies like Level Tree Validation, Parallel Sharding, Independent multi-chain Structure, Block Redesign, and PoF(Proof-of-Formulation) which is its own consensus algorithm. With them, it aims to solve problems that existing platforms have such as slow speeds, scalability limitation, and excessive fees and provide a flexible development environment. Moreover, through its Gateway technology, it enhanced its interoperability by allowing projects issuing their tokens through other mainnets to maintain their mainnets while using FLETA chain.
Sendsquare, a foundation that developed FLETA project, was selected as one of the blockchain PoC support projects by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) of the South Korean Government since 2019 and has developed the blockchain-based on-chain clinical data management system (eCRF System) and RWD basic clinical research analysis report platform using blockchain technology.
