Singapore Government Agency Opts for Blockchain to Develop Health Passport

Singapore is opting for blockchain technology to create feasible framework for health data monitoring and collection. In this regard, SGInnovate, a government owned investment firm and Singaporean startup Accredify have jointly established a unique blockchain based digital health passport.

Creation of the app, which facilitates personal medical info to be stored in a blockchain based digital wallet, started in May. A triumphant trial in July indicated that the app had the ability of administering and validating digitized healthcare records, including Covid-19 patient discharge records, outcome of swab tests, proof of immunity and vaccination related documents, over 1.50 million times.

For the trial, the health passport was rolled out as a fresh feature in the app of Singapore Manpower Ministry’s FWMOMCARE. The mobile app, rolled out in May, was intended to assist in tracking and recording migrant workers’ daily health conditions during the pandemic. SGInnovate is financed by Singapore’s Ministry of Finance and has a proven history of working in the blockchain domain.

The digital health passport app has been created on the Open Attestation platform, an open sourced infrastructure for notarizing records utilizing the blockchain, built by the Singapore government’s CIO office, GovTech.

Simon Gordn, SGInnovate’s deputy director of venture building, has stated that “as the pandemic tested Singapore’s healthcare sector, we identified a gap in the large-scale management of medical records. We wanted to quickly build a solution that enables a trusted authentication process.”

Through a joint statement, SGInnovate and Accredify have stated that the app will terminate dependability on physical documents, which can be altered or missed. SGInnovate detailed:

“Digital Health Passport leverages blockchain technology to generate tamper-proof cryptographic protections for each medical document. Users can automatically verify the digital records via a mobile app and present it to officials via QR code, for a quick and seamless verification process.”

The company highlighted the main benefits of blockchain technology in healthcare sector such as security, transparency and privacy for handling delicate records. As earlier reported, several enterprises and organizations across the globe have been studying blockchain solutions for digital health identity and administration as they ease prohibitions related to pandemic and open the economies.