Mexican Healthcare Company Adopts Blockchain to Prevent COVID-19 Vaccine Fraud

Mexico-based healthcare firm MDS Mexico has introduced a COVID-19 testing service that will be supported by blockchain technology to ensure the authenticity of vaccination certificates. With fake vaccine certificates being used to avoid quarantine (and because of the stigma around covid), it is becoming important to have a verifiable confirmation of a person's vaccination status, as per MDS Mexico. The company offers both rapid test applications and interpretation services as well as, home-based PCR swab tests and the results carry cryptographic certification to ensure authenticity.

As is the case with rapid tests as well as PCR tests, the results are delivered physically with 24 hours of the test with a QR code that can be scanned to access the person's vaccination history. According to a report by CoinTelegragh, the digitally shared results are backed using blockchain technology to guarantee the authenticity of the results.

MDS adds a unique hash associated with the results of each test and generates a QR code that links to a digital certificate with some personal information of the person. These specifics include the name, the results obtained, the physician responsible for administering the test, and also the date the test was taken.

Mexico, as a nation, also happens to be one of Latin America's early blockchain tech adopters. The local Congress of Quintana Roo in Cancun, for example, has previously experimented with the implementation of the Avalanche blockchain to digitise the records of citizens by public administration.

As far as the global adoption of the digital ledger in medical management is concerned, its use has been limited by several institutional, administration, and technological barriers. But with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for a secure and decentralized form of saving confidential information was a need of the hour. Operations which include vaccination status observation, contact tracing, and COVID-19 health certificate issuance all required a digital solution and blockchain came forth as a solution that's best suited for it.