VeChain continues its collaboration with I-Dante to co-develop E-HCert App. This provides an archival solution for Covid-19 RT-PCR (real time-polymerase chain reaction) and antibodies tests (Rapid Test) records.
With the Covid-19 pandemic putting healthcare systems under strain everywhere, Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are evolving the requirements for data security and sharing. This is one manifestation – in Cyprus.
E-HCert – enabling new information delivery
COVID-19 has prompted an expansion of the need for healthcare systems support. A recent report found that 33 of the 50 US-based hospitals examined were working with Amazon, Google or Microsoft. The Wall Street Journal said these internet giants are also wrestling for control in health-care markets.
Compared with traditional storage or archival technologies, blockchain provides an opportunity for enterprises to:
- review their healthcare data systems
- optimise the workflow designs
- enable all patients to hold reliably their records as well as share these as needed.
The previous success, between VeChain and I-Dante, with blockchain-enabled medical solutions, led to the idea for the E-HCert App. The Mediterranean Hospital of Cyprus (MHC) has now adopted this with the new EHR system providing a secured method of on-chaining the Covid-19 related tests.
MHC is one of the largest in Cyprus. Its mission is to provide to all citizens and visitors safe and high-quality medical services. Though private, the hospital was the first to join Cyprus’ General HealthCare System (GHS).
As one of its goals, the founder of the MHC, Dr Andreas Panayiotou, put the development and the establishment of a reliable infirmary with flexible operational mechanisms at the centre. The E-HCert App:
- seeks to describe the health status of individuals
- will be available to all concerned parties – though only at the discretion of the individual.
In effect, the E-HCert App’s objective is to make it easier for individuals to go about their lives ‘as usual’.
EHR reform and public blockchains
The VeChain/I-Dante E-HCert App an archival solution for Covid-19 RT-PCR records. Holding these enhances the hospital’s Covid-19 management and response.
When a Cypriot goes to the hospital and undergoes RT-PCR and antibodies tests, the testing result records will:
- upload onto the VeChainThor Blockchain
- then appear in the E-HCert App.
With E-HCert complying with GDPR, the App enables the owner to:
- have complete control over his or her profile
- use this to prove his or her health status.
With such evidence, the owner can show this when:
- trying to return to work
- take a flight abroad
- obtain necessary Covid-19 related authorisations for other activities.
Enterprise Times: what does this mean
Test results for citizens for Covid-10 is a critical tool for public welfare management as well as a reflection personal ‘health status’:
- authorities worldwide need secure and legitimate access to health status information
- citizens themselves also need trustworthy and reliable proof of their own health condition plus control over their privacy.
Not unexpectedly, existing EHR systems are revealing deficiencies in terms of:
- interoperability
- immutability
- compliance
- costs.
There is, therefore, a need for the collection of trustworthy and standardised encrypted medical records which can be shared between multiple parties, like E-HCert. Enter blockchain technology. It would seem like the de facto choice for such an implementation.
But, but, but… The E-HCert app sounds very much like a ‘health passport’. This concept has attracted widespread denigration – on several grounds. One is that it can become a mechanism to discriminate (one person shows Covid-19 clear, so he or she can have employment while another person, with a test result, cannot). Another is that what exists on the blockchain is only as good as the latest test result – the outcome of which may not be accurate hours or days later. Furthermore, even if a test shows Covid-19 antibodies it is not yet clear that this confirms immunity.
All in all, Enterprise Times cannot yet share VeChain’s claim that it will “use its experience in the blockchain industry to empower more partners in the healthcare sector. By doing so, VeChain will play a central role in the acceleration of the digitalization of the healthcare industry” – at least when when applied to Covid-19/E-HCert.