IBM Launches Blockchain-Based Health Pass to Aid Safe Reopening of Public Places

UTC by Godfrey Benjamin · 3 min read
IBM Launches Blockchain-Based Health Pass to Aid Safe Reopening of Public Places
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The initiative taken by IBM Watson Health to develop the Digital Health Pass is one of the many innovations that is currently being explored by the company.

IBM Watson Health, a division of Management Consulting firm IBM Corporation (NYSE: IBM) is set to debut a mobile-based blockchain application dubbed Digital Health Pass to help in health verification status in order to aid the safe reopening of public spaces. Per the update on the project’s website, the IBM mobile digital Health Pass will be available for downloads and it prioritizes customer’s data privacy.

Since the better part of the world complied with a mandatory stay at home order that became the order of the day far back in March, return to normal lives have generally been laden with fears. The continued rise in the COVID-19 cases has further stirred worries amongst the populace with respect to a return to normal living as seen before the coronavirus pandemic. Organizations, schools, Parks, Cinemas, and many other public places haven’t opened to their optimal levels and the need to resume activities in these units has precipitated the need to devise a working and safe solution.

The initiative taken by IBM Watson Health to develop the Digital Health Pass is one of the many innovations that is currently being explored to achieve this safe reopening. The IBM Digital Health Pass is a blockchain platform that helps aggregates different data sources containing such results as an individual’s health results such as COVID-19 tests, temperature scans, and other indicators that help confirm one has no COVID-19 infections.

Once such data is available, the user can store the results by scanning a QR code into the Digital Health Pass which can further be shared securely with the appropriate organization in need of those data. IBM believes that the solution can serve as the pivot to help us all return to our normal lives.

IBM Digital Health Pass: How Organizations Can Use the Tool

Aside from the users whose primary data will be archived on the IBM Digital Health Pass, employers of labor and organizations will be able to use the data from the Health pass to design innovative flexible business rules.

As IBM noted, the use of the Health Pass is unlike the credit system in which decisions are based on multiple data which the most affect individual never gets an inclination about. With the Health Pass, both the organization and the data owner will have a proper glimpse of the health scenario thus helping to make crucial decisions that will affect them the more.

Other advantages to the Health pass includes the fact that users can control access to their data

With more than a million people infected with COVID-19 worldwide, it is important to have such a tool as IBM is proposing. As a functional COVID-19 vaccine is still not launched yet, the government and organizations are exploring viable means to return to the workspace or other public places without risking more infection surge. Hopefully, the IBM Digital Health Pass will help achieve that.

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