For public health practitioners, the ability to quickly collect, analyze and take action on data is paramount to containing the spread of a deadly new virus or disease.
But despite the advent of big data technologies, collecting this information today remains a highly cumbersome and time-consuming process, explains Jim Nasr, chief software architect at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tasked with combating the spread of preventive and chronic disease.
Now in search of a better solution, Nasr is eyeing a blockchain proof-of-concept he believes could facilitate the more rapid and reliable capture of epidemiological data in crisis situations.
The agency will discuss the concept, aimed at public health data surveillance, along with several other PoCs, at the Distributed: Health conference in Nashville on Tuesday.
More of this good news here...This is another good news for the innovative and revolutionary blockchain technology as it continues to get new and different arenas where it can be used which can have tremendous effect for the people. I guess we should realized that the blockchain technology can be playing many roles in the humanitarian projects and this of the CDC is just one of the many to follow soon.
