Nacionalinė medicinos biblioteka siūlo „Covid“ duomenų blokų grandinę

The world is still battling the coronavirus, although at a smaller scale in contrast  to when the number of global cases were at peak. The covid-19 data has become so big that it is becoming difficult to store and use it effectively. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest medical library, recently came up with a proposal to solve this issue using blockchain.

A Blockchain for EHRs

According to the issued document titled ‘A global blockchain for recording high rates of COVID-19 vaccinations’ on May 30, 2023. The paper proposes a blockchain-based vaccination management system, GEOS. The idea is to resolve issues associated with the global campaign against the disease.

The document discusses how global availability of electronic health records (EHR) can be valuable to everyone. The technology can help keep an eye on the progress of the vaccination process, detect the contagion and more. Covid is still active globally with many regions witnessing hospitalization cases.

The proposed system consists of a couple of layers — National Immunization Blockchain (NIB) and Global Immunization Blockchain (GIB). The former will stack up the data, as the name suggests, on a national level, while the latter is used for global interoperability and aggregation of stats.

EHR records have been misused previously in privacy breaches. Such instances can lead to issues including limited vaccine accessibility to vulnerable or marginalized populace, uncertain delays in treatment of an individual and more, the paper highlighted.

The Technology Has the Potential to Change Several Markets

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows 56 Million have got the booster dose in the U.S. To this day, the nation has the highest death toll with 1.1 Million killed from the disease. According to the CDC, new SARS-Cov-2 variants are expected to surface. Some of them will stay and spread while others will disappear.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the virus affected 767 Million people worldwide; the U.S. was the worst affected with 103 Million cases. Furthermore, the Western Pacific region saw the highest number of cases in a single day — 42.8 Million on December 19, 2022. Almost 7 Million people died globally due to the deadly pandemic, data shows.

Nacionalinė medicinos biblioteka siūlo „Covid“ duomenų blokų grandinę
Source: World Health Organization (WHO)

Companies including Novavax, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson are actively involved in this battle against coronavirus. Novavax landed the biggest covid-19 contract in June 2020. Similarly, Moderna saw significant rise in mRNA-1273 vaccine during the pandemic.

Blockchain can revolutionize every industry it is employed in. According to a survey conducted by Deloitte, a professional services network, 81% respondent said the technology is broadly scalable. 80% believe their respective industries will experience new revenue streams through it.

According to Grand View Research, the blockchain market generated $10.02 Billion last year and is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 87% between 2023 to 2030. Crypto payments is a major driver of the technology’s  adoption. Starbucks, KFC, Twitch are some of the big businesses that accept crypto payments. Microsoft began accepting Bitcoin as a payment method in Xbox, Windows and other platforms

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, once said that “Bitcoin is Better than currency.”

Anuragas

Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/06/01/national-library-of-medicine-proposes-blockchain-for-covid-data/