IBM has created a new blockchain-based Covid-19 application that puts privacy first. The new application is powered by the IBM blockchain that was launched in 2017 as the first service for developers to build enterprise-grade technology using Hyperledger Fabric.
This application aims to help businesses around the world to return to their physical activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic forced many businesses to reconsider their operations and result to work-at-home solutions to reduce risks of contacting and spreading the virus.
A healthcare-focused arm of IBM, IBM Watson Health, is launching the blockchain-based app known as IBM Digital Health Pass, which will support global businesses as they set to reopen their physical addresses after months in lockdown.
According to IBM Watson, IBM Digital Health Pass can install many data types such as Covid-19 test results and onsite temperature scans to produce a verified health status. This ability of the app to generate and verify health status instantly will be a huge leap in the management of health status of individuals across the world, and facilitate the safe reopening of businesses, social spaces, airplanes and other communal areas that have been closed to avoid the spread of the disease.
IBM Digital Health Pass is designed to support privacy, as an individual’s health information is crucial. Eric Piscini, the vice president of the blockchain division of this new app emphasized this, and said that the app will allow users to share their verified health pass and the underlying data used to generate the pass will not be exposed. Piscini said
We believe that trust and transparency remain paramount when developing a platform like a digital health passport, or any solution that handles sensitive personal information, and we remain committed to this philosophy as we continue to build solutions to help support organizations during the current public health crisis.
The IBM blockchain has been in the forefront of helping people and organizations tackle the Covid-19 crisis. The new app is therefore not the first time the blockchain has been used to create a solution to rising global problems caused by the virus.
Earlier in the year, IBM also launched IBM’s Rapid Supplier Connect Network, which is a cloud-based application that uses blockchain to assist businesses providing corona virus supplies connect with buyers. The platform has digital identity services for supplier vetting and emergency supplier onboarding and helped buyers have access to supplier information and product listings.
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