South Korea is planning to leverage blockchain technology in its fight against diabetes as the common chronic disease, prevalent in over 3.6 million in the region, is known to overburden the healthcare systems and patients with overwhelming treatment costs.
Blockchain technology saw innumerable use cases in recent months with the onset of a raging pandemic. Recently, a blockchain startup leveraged the upcoming technology in testing the authenticity of COVID-19 testing kits in developing nations where segregating fake from real is a challenge.
Last week, a VeChain i-Dante led initiative for a Cyprus hospital went live where blockchain technology is being used to track and record the COVID history of patients. From bolstering supply chains to streamlining traditional banking practices like cross-border remittances, the tech has seen massive utilities in recent years.
Blockchain technology boosts fight against diabetes
Now, the South Korean government has entrusted a blockchain-based startup called Sendsquare to design proof-of-concept blockchain ledger that stores and manages clinic data of patients who have diabetes.
The region has recently seen a tremendous surge in the people who are affected by this lifestyle disease due to changing city environments and increased intake of unhealthy diets. Besides, Asians are genetically known to have reduced insulin secretion capacity, which has resulted in over 60 percent of diabetic patients hailing from this region.
Although the inclusion of the latest technologies like AI has been helping the country in one of its most challenging healthcare battles by early detection of the disease, blockchain technology will help counter the effects with better analysis of the patient data. Sendsquare will now deploy the tech to tackle issues such as data loss, manipulation, and duplication, as noticed in the case of centralized hospital networks.
Blockchain: Overcoming shortcomings of centralization
It will develop a Clinical Research Data Registry Platform, underpinned by blockchain and backed by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) of South Korea, which will help in accurate profiling, derivation, and proper data management for enhanced diagnosis and treatments.
Seoul’s leading university hospital, KyungHee University Medical Centre, will work with Sendsquare collaboratively to analyze and manage patient records collected over nine years. According to one of its professors, centralized systems have failed to offer desired results in managing vast amounts of medical data. There are recurrent issues, and blockchain technology is a potential answer to these long-standing problems, he affirmed.
Meanwhile, the blockchain solution offered on both public as well as the private chain will be ready for deployment in another six month’s time, following which Sendsquare will seek necessary approvals for its nationwide integration.
