It’s more evident that blockchain is not only tied to digital currencies. Presently, the technology is being applied across several sectors to improve trust, transparency, and immutability of information. Even during the Coronavirus outbreak, many governments had supported the use of blockchain to develop COVID-19 tracing applications.
Today, hospitals in the United Kingdom (UK) are currently using the technology to monitor the temperature of COVID-19 vaccines, according to a CNBC report on Tuesday.
Blockchain adopted for monitoring COVID-19 vaccine
The blockchain-based tracking system was developed by Everyware in partnership with the Google-backed blockchain consortium Hedera. UK hospitals such as South Warwickshire’s National Health Service facilities are reportedly using the technology to track the temperature of COVID-19 before using the drugs on patients. This is an important development given that COVID-19 vaccines, especially from Pfizer and BioNTech, are temperature-sensitive.
They ought to be stored at a certain temperature before usage. So, from the storage facility, the sensors from Everyware monitor the temperature of the COVID-19 vaccines and pass the information to the blockchain, where it becomes tamper-proof and can be accessed by the hospitals. An official at Everyware, Tom Screen, mentioned blockchain data immutability as a reason they chose to use the technology.
“The benefits of an immutable ledger to verify the validity of data as close to the source as possible has a positive effect on the accuracy of downstream analytics, where any error in source data would be magnified in output datasets,” he added.
Blockchain is gaining widespread adoption
It’s safe to mention that the potentials of blockchain technology can never be overemphasized. The technology is helping to rebuild trust in daily activities, and transparency especially in supply chain management. IBM has championed this sector through its blockchain network. Last year, Cryptopolitan reported many companies that joined the IBM blockchain network to improve the traceability of products. They include Rolar de Cuyo, Folgers Coffee, and others.
