Healthcare data company CENTOGENE announced it has joined forces with blockchain startup Ubirch to create a solution to secure results of COVID-19 mass testing that takes into consideration General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance.
Based on the premise that absent a vaccine widespread testing is inevitable to permit the return of social interaction, the solution includes an efficient test to screen for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) that stores the results on the blockchain. According to CENTOGENE, a person can then retrieve the test results at any time in a “forgery-proof manner” to show they are not infected by the virus.
Blockchain features like immutability and decentralization have raised questions on whether it can comply with GDPR. Last year the European Parliament published a study exploring this issue. As per the announcement, CENTOGENE and Ubirch focused on GDPR compliance and created a secure blockchain solution where “[a]ccording to the highest data protection standards, user data is only stored as hash values on the blockchain and cannot be interpreted without user authorization.” The duo are also working on coronavirus tracking.