1.8 ml of sodium chloride is added to a vial of Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine concentrate ready for administration at Guy’s Hospital at the beginning of the largest immunization program in UK history on 8 December 2020 in London , UK.
Victoria Jones – Billiards | Getty Images
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 the technology developed by the British company Everyware and the US organization Hedera Hashgraph. Everyware uses sensors to monitor equipment in real time, while Hedera is a blockchain consortium supported by Google and IBM.
Although originally created as the digital registry that underlies bitcoin, the blockchain has since been adapted by various industries for applications outside the realm of finance. IBM and Walmart, for example, used blockchain to track food supply chains and identify potential contamination.
Tom Screen, technical director at Everyware, told CNBC that his sensors will monitor the temperature of vaccine-storing refrigerators. It then transmits the data to its own cloud platform, where it is encrypted and then transmitted to Hedera’s blockchain network.
The purpose of this operation is to keep a digital record of temperature-sensitive vaccines, such as those developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Hospitals could, in theory, take over any irregularities in the storage of vaccines before administering them to patients.
The Pfizer vaccine should be kept at sub-zero temperatures (-70 degrees Celsius) and can last only two to eight degrees Celsius for up to five days, creating major obstacles to its distribution logistics.
Vaccines developed by Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca, however, can be stored at temperatures that are within reach of the average home refrigerator. for longer.
Blockchain saw a lot of hype in 2017, as the value of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin has grown. It has led to several projects from major companies, including IBM and Walmart, as well as governments, lured by the promise to replace various old paper-based processes for record keeping.
Today, the buzz around the blockchain seems to have disappeared, barely there were tests and products based on technology, being announced by large corporations.
Asked why a blockchain is needed more than a regular database, Everyware’s screen said that “data stored in a private database can be checked against the status of data recorded in the public registry.”
“The advantages of an immutable register to verify the validity of data as close to the source as possible has a positive effect on the accuracy of the downstream analysis, where any error in the source data would be increased in the output data sets,” he said.
Everyware has competed in an open bidding process involving other bidders to provide its services to the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, Screen said.