1.8 ml of sodium chloride is added to a vial of Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine concentrate prepared for administration at Guy’s Hospital at the start of the largest vaccination program in the history of the Kingdom. Joined December 8, 2020 in London, United Kingdom.
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LONDON – Two UK hospitals are actively using blockchain technology to help maintain the temperature of coronavirus vaccines before administering them to patients.
The facilities of the National Health Service in South Warwickshire (England) use technology developed by the British firm Everyware and the American organization Hedera Hashgraph. Everyware uses sensors to monitor computers in real time, while Hedera is a consortium of blockchains supported by Google and IBM.
Although originally created as a digital book that underpins bitcoin, since then several industries have adapted blockchain for applications outside the realm of finance. IBM and Walmart, for example, have used blockchain to track food supply chains and identify potential contamination.
Tom Screen, technical director of Everyware, told CNBC that its sensors would monitor the temperature of the refrigerators that store vaccines. It then transmits the data to its own cloud platform where it is encrypted and then transmitted to the Hedera blockchain network.
The goal of this operation is to maintain a tamper-proof digital record of temperature-sensitive vaccines, such as those developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Hospitals, in theory, could detect any irregularities in the storage of vaccines before administering them to patients.
The Pfizer vaccine should be stored at temperatures below zero (-70 degrees Celsius) and can only last between two and eight degrees Celsius for up to five days, creating major barriers to distribution logistics.
However, vaccines developed by Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca can be stored at temperatures within reach of the average domestic refrigerator. for longer.
Blockchain saw a lot of publicity in 2017 as the value of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin skyrocketed. It led to several projects by major companies such as IBM and Walmart, as well as governments, attracted by the promise to replace several old paper-based processes to keep records.
Today, the hustle and bustle around the blockchain seems to have faded, with little testing and technology-based products announced by large companies.
When asked why a blockchain was needed instead of a regular database, Everyware’s Screen said that “data contained in a private database can be verified based on the status of the data recorded in the general ledger “.
“The advantages of an immutable book to verify the validity of the data as close as possible to the source have a positive effect on the accuracy of subsequent analyzes, where any error in the source data would be magnified in the sets of output data, ”he said.
Everyware competed in an open bidding process that involved other bidders to provide their services to the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, Screen said.