The Public Health Blockchain Consortium (PHBC) has announced the launch of a blockchain monitor for adequate, continual, and systematic tracking of movement in virus-free zones and ensuring that no infected person enters the earmarked safe zones.
The deadly coronavirus pandemic has left the world in the lurch. In these testing times, technological advancements are emerging as a critical means to help people recuperate and get back to leading as healthy a life as possible.
Chinese President Xi Jinping believes that technology can blockchain can really come in handy during such a crisis. According to him, if there is one thing the pandemic has taught the world is that there couldn’t be a greater need for effective social governance than today, and blockchain can help us attain it.
A blockchain monitor that protects the uninfected
Naturally, several government organizations are ramping up efforts to contain the spread using the most advanced technologies. The latest one to join the bandwagon is PHBC, an association of healthcare service professionals, researchers, and universities who are committed to gather, store and manage healthcare data using blockchain, thereby enhancing healthcare services around the globe.
Ayon Hazra, who is the CEO of Qlikchain, a Netherlands-based blockchain startup for sustainable communities and administrator for PHBC, outlined the unique feature of this blockchain monitor. It is unlike any other existing surveillance monitors which emphasize on movements of an infected person, he said.
What PHBC’s blockchain monitor does is that it identifies and earmarks safe zones where there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus. It stores and updates the data real-time using blockchain and integrates information received from surveillance providers who use a combination of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) geographical information systems (GIS), Hazra explained.
Throwing light on the unique blockchain monitor contributes to the overall well-being of the community, Hazra said that the individuals and communities from the safe zones could restrict their movement according to the information provided on the monitor. It is a practical approach to safeguarding the non-infected community by not letting them move through risk-prone areas, he added.
Additionally, the blockchain monitor also keeps track of the protection certificates offered by the regulatory authorities to workplaces and communities. If the monitor picks up an individual from the safe zone who has been to one of the infected areas, it will automatically prompt a quarantine requirement. If the symptoms do not show up over some time, the individual will be marked safe to enter the safe zones.
The PHBC’s virus-free tracking system was first launched at the PHBC conference in Geneva last month. At the next year’s conference, the association will present its findings on how effective the blockchain monitor has been in tracking virus-free areas and restricting movements.
