du debuts first health blockchain solution in the UAE
By Ben Mack / CommsMEA
SOURCE: CommsMEA - du debuts first health blockchain solution in the UAE
Blockchain. Blockchain. Blockchain.
Odds are, you’ve probably heard so much about blockchain in the past couple of years you might feel as if your head is about to explode. Everyone and their pet Shiba Inu seems to be doing something with blockchain – or has plans to do something with blockchain.
Unsurprisingly, United Arab Emirates telco du is also doing things in blockchain. For instance, it was a key partner at the Unlock Blockchain conference. Held on January 15 at the Ritz-Carlton in the Dubai International Financial Centre area of the UAE’s glimmering city seemingly ubiquitous with new technologies, the even brought together startups, investors, media and more to talk about where things are at with blockchain development, and where things are headed – and what it might mean for the masses.
As part of the conference, du announced its latest Blockchain Platform as a Service (BPaaS) use case by entering into a collaboration with Dhonor HealthTech – a company focused on global healthcare blockchain solutions – to build the UAE’s first patient safety blockchain solution.
The blockchain solution will make it easier for patients and doctors to trace where medicines come from and what is in them – such as if blood bags are sterile and the blood in them is free from disease. The solution uses DevOps, and supports Etherum and Hyperledger Fabric v1.3 frameworks.
Said Jihad Tayara, vice president of business development and partnerships – new business and innovation at du: “This is what blockchain enables: trust.”
He added: “BPaaS provides immense scalability, compatibility and cost efficiencies, but it also ensures high security and transparency of sensitive data. In the healthcare sector, protecting patient data is paramount. Hence, we are proud to implement the next deployment of BPaaS within the healthcare sector, where it will contribute towards saving countless lives and raising the quality of care that patients receive.”
Tayara also said the solution is evidence that blockchain is beginning to move beyond hype to a viable solution for the public and businesses to make people’s lives better. A key factor, he said, will be making using blockchain – and understanding how it works – simpler. “We [at du] really try to reduce complexity.”
Said Wassim Merheby, Dhonor Healthtech CEO and co-founder: “Through Dhonor’s core business tenet as an advanced patient safety platform, our ability to empower patients through innovative technological developments will be significantly enhanced with du’s BPaaS. The need for transparency and visibility to verify the authenticity and condition of the medicines that patients’ lives depends on is essential. By adopting blockchain into our everyday operations, this will be an important step towards the digitisation of the UAE’s healthcare sector and revolutionise patient-centricity.”
Tayara added there are big hopes for the solution’s deployment – in the UAE and beyond. “We hope we can expand this service, inshallah.”