Today can be called a true point of no return to history as we knew it. The coronavirus’s global character will modify people’s lives and actions significantly. Many companies and authorities will have to adapt to new realities and, hopefully, improve their performance.

As part of the Blockchain Research Institute, we are doing our best to encourage effective solutions to modern problems. Computer science innovations such as AI, VR, modern devices, smart technologies, and most importantly, blockchain systems are the tools that have more potential today than ever before. They can be beneficial not only for the business sector and national economies but also for the field of health care and, thus, influence the destiny of humankind.

The conventional solutions that we have, until now, used daily have proven to be ineffective. Now is the time for radical change. It is hard to argue that nothing possesses the same power as an idea that turns into a necessity, as V. Hugo once noticed.

Blockchain and Epidemics: The Scope of Work

Today, the world requires comprehensive techniques to manage the coronavirus crisis. The BRI carried out an online discussion with thirty professionals from all over the world to discuss this topic. Many current issues were addressed, including the coronavirus and ways to apply blockchain technologies to the most damaged fields of human activity. We have come up with an overall scope of work to challenge the pandemic with the help of blockchain in five fields (they are fully described in our article).

1. Responsible Behavior, Medical Records, and Accessible Information

Information is the cornerstone of the battle against COVID-19. Usually, all the important records are kept in archives in healthcare facilities or scientific institutions. We must have direct access to all related records, both recent and old, from all the corners of the world and a uniform system to share the information quickly and securely. To facilitate its development, the blockchain-based company Shivom is working on an international project gathering and distributing pandemic-related information upon the request of the EU’s Innovative Medicine Initiative. Numerous startups are engaged. For example, Emerge, the developers of an application for Honduranians designed to associate national identification numbers with a blockchain system are creating a database of doctor appointments. Thus, when a patient goes to a clinic for treatment, doctors can access the patient’s health records by using an application and add any necessary information.

Another example worth mentioning is Trustup, a research study by an MIT doctor and the Oxford-Hainan Blockchain Research Institute. The project aims to develop a system that regularly defines the factors that prove that medical information kept with the help of blockchain technology is more accurate than records kept in traditional archives. Such a solution requires a compromise between privacy policies and humankind’s well-being. Behaving responsibly and understanding that your personal medical data can be useful for finding a cure—or at least getting a treatment—for people with the same symptoms is the first step in winning the battle against the pandemic.

2. Timely Solutions for Supply Systems

Supply systems are significantly important to our modern international economy and its operation. The pandemic crisis has made them extraordinarily volatile, forcing them to struggle for profits and pay huge prices for any flaws. Our supply systems need to become more flexible with easy access to any undoubtedly trustworthy data. Work is already being done in that direction.

The specialists from RemediChain are implementing necessary changes to the pharmaceutical supply system. They noticed that many drugs that hadn’t been used by patients before their expiry date were still effective and could be recycled. The work required a system that kept and traced information about these drugs. That is were blockchain technologies came in handy.

The database can be created by the people using certain medicines by sharing information about the medication and its expiration date. This data would create a nationwide data archive of all the existing extra medication. When once-abundant products are suddenly in high demand, like sanitizers are now, medical staff can apply to receive some of those registered overrun medications, which could possibly save someone’s life. Blockchain is the perfect solution here.

Blockchain represents a national database that quickly gives exact information about supply system members and supplies whenever that information is needed. When the pandemic broke, an online platform specializing in the trade of digital goods switched to providing most needed 3D medical supplies to healthcare facilities that had access to 3D printing. The system proved to be very beneficial because it allowed people to engineer the needed parts and create them much more quickly than normal, making them less expensive than purchasing them from the initial producer or buying the new devices.

3. Healing the Economy: What Blockchain Has to Offer

If supply systems are the driving force of international trade, then money is its fuel. However, banknotes can carry the virus, which has been an additional challenge during the coronavirus crisis. Let’s discuss the ways in which digital money can be a solution.

Another benefit of the blockchain system is reduced costs. For example, the Solve.Care project, which is supported by Ethereum, is a lifesaver. It reduces healthcare operational expenses, so more money from customer costs go straight to treatment.

The healthcare collapse was a financial collapse as well, cutting off large amounts of supply systems’ budgets. We are interested in financial tools supported by blockchain technologies, such as Chained Finance and campaigns aimed at gathering financial contributions, such as those based on the Binance platform. Governmental issues were also addressed by two blockchain-based ventures that managed specified forms of administration with power distributed evenly among the local authorities, which can help small communities to whole nations face the crisis.

4. A Fast Connection Among Medical Staff

Doctors who are fighting the pandemic are making heroic contributions and sometimes paying the double price for their heroism. Unfortunately, healthcare institutions can’t register patients as quickly as they need to. It’s not the staff’s fault or their slow reaction. It’s a pure lack of ability to react rapidly enough to the needs of each patient.

Sometimes, hospitals don’t have the necessary medicines or specialists, but they can be found in some other hospitals nearby. Blockchain technologies can solve this problem, and they already have. Platforms such as Dock.io or Zinc.work are designed to coordinate work and data among medical professionals in different regions, districts, areas, and sectors to meet the needs of all departments and medical workers. They provide a uniform database of medications, specialists, their expertise, and their experience to make the process of finding the right cure and the right specialist as quick as possible.

5. Remuneration and Encouragement to Stimulate Liability

Rewards are a powerful tool. Blockchain systems are a good solution for gathering and storing information about shareholder rewards for any achievement and effort while making people act more responsibly. For instance, some healthcare authorities and institutions in Canada have already worked with blockchain technologies to create platforms that encourage healthy nutrition and sports activities, as well as inspire people to control their medical records themselves.

A New Plan for the New Reality

It’s impossible to implement all the necessary changes within the pandemic period, but some of them can be brought to life soon. Nations must realize the beneficial potential of blockchain technologies. State governments should form authorities to deal with modern-day issues in the field of health care and find solutions based on blockchain systems. These movements could boost the emergence of blockchain businesses engaged in the development of these solutions, collaborating with medical workers and healthcare organizations to develop the best technological answers to existing problems.

“We expect a great leadership collapse in the near future, as once there emerge the new models of leadership based on modern technologies, its conflict with the traditional, proven ones is inevitable.”

The businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic must stay the primary movers of the economies, but they should embrace new changes by implementing blockchain solutions. They should keep working in the areas related to health records, data verification schemes, reward systems, and similar solutions, encouraging responsible actions, which is why implementing reward systems must become an integrated part of business structures.

Crises have always been driving forces in human history. Take Zoom as an example. It’s a huge corporation that was once known to a few technological businesses. Now, it has evolved into a successful brand known to everyone. At the same time, large businesses from the last century are barely making ends meet. People’s behaviors are changing every day, reacting to modern life challenges. Blockchain fits these realities implicitly because it can be as flexible as the modern world requires.

We expect a great leadership collapse soon. Once new models of leadership based on modern technologies emerge, their conflict with traditional, proven ones is inevitable. What if our pandemic reality turns out to be a trigger for new leadership ideas that come with digital solutions? Are you in?