International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) recently developed a blockchain-powered digital health passport platform to allow individuals to store and share their COVID-19 health status while protecting their privacy. IBM digital health pass combines various dynamic data sources, including test results and on-site temperature scans, to allow individuals to safely store their health information on their smartphones. The goal of IBM Digital Health Pass is to give organizations the freedom to design business rules behind the health status, determine their response to the health status, and allow individuals to share their health status and control access to their data.
The digital health passport is designed so that organizations can create their own individual criteria to generate a health status that fits any specific situation. Because organizations will all be able to tailor their own criteria, an individual may receive different responses from different organizations regarding their personal health status.
The IBM digital health pass would also enable individuals to present their health information through their health passport instead of sharing personal or sensitive information, including lab results or medical history, to a large group of individuals. Individuals would have control over who has access to their data, so each person must give consent to release their personal health data as part of their health status. Therefore, an individual could choose to share medical records, or they can choose to withhold access to these results. Individuals can also choose what organizations can see their health status.
IBM is an American cloud-platform and cognitive-solutions multinational technology and consulting company. It is headquartered in Armonk, New York, with more than 350,000 employees serving clients in 170 countries.
This was reported by IBM on August 25, 2020.
Contact information: Amanda Carl, Director of Communications, Research, IBM, 2300 Dulles Station Boulevard, Herndon, Virginia 20171; 703-318-1294; Fax: 703-309-7758; Email: amcarl@us.ibm.com; Website: https://www.ibm.com/products/digital-health-pass
