Owing chiefly to the lack of suitable technology solutions, India is experiencing both shortage and wastage of blood units. In addressing such a challenge, we explore the unique role of Blockchain and Internet-of-things technologies in the overall blood supply chain management as an appropriate technology solution. Our study employs an integrated Task-Technology Fit and Technology Acceptance Model to empirically test and identify key factors influencing the adoption intention of the Blockchain and Internet-of-things enabled system. With the need to preserve donor and recipient data integrity and data privacy, the respective state and national health departments strictly regulate blood banks. Accordingly, our study also explores the role of government in supporting and overseeing security concerns in the future adoption of the Blockchain and Internet-of-things technologies. Finally, a solution based on the Blockchain and Internet-of-things technologies to ensure the sufficient availability of blood units at the national level is envisioned.
Purpose Some studies and reports have recently suggested using blockchain technology to improve transparency and trust in humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). However, evidence-based studies to display the utility and applicability of blockchains in HSCs are missing in the literature. This paper aims to investigate the key drivers and barriers of blockchain application to HSCs and explore whether evidence could support that the application of blockchain improves transparency and trust in HSCs. Design/methodology/approach This paper puts forward a two-stage approach to explore the blockchain application in HSCs: an initial exploration of humanitarian practitioners and academicians interested in blockchain through focus group discussions; semi-structured interviews with practitioners involved at the UK Department for International Development's Humanitarian Supply Blockchain pilot project. Findings First, we found that main drivers include accountability, visibility, traceability, trust, collaboration, time efficiency, reducing administrative work and cross-sector partnership. Main barriers, however, are composed of engagement issues, lack of technical skills and training, lack of resources, privacy concerns, regulatory problems, pilot scalability issues and governance challenges. Second, evidence from our case study revealed the blockchain application could have added value to improve visibility and traceability, thus contributing to improve transparency. Concerning trust, evidence supports that blockchain could enhance both commitment and swift trust in the pilot study. Practical implications Our study contributes to a more understanding of added values and challenges of blockchain application to HSCs and creates a perspective for humanitarian decision-makers. Originality/value This study provides the first evidence from the actual application of blockchain technology in HSCs. The study discovered that it is still less evident in many humanitarian organizations, including medium- and small-sized nongovernmental organizations, that they engage in a direct deployment of in-house or customized blockchain-based HSC. Instead, these actors are more likely to indirectly use blockchain in HSCs through a private commercial partner.
Diana Hawashin, Dunia J. Mahboobeh, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman · 7 authors
Today’s a large number of blood donation management systems fall short in providing traceability, immutability, transparency, audit, privacy, and security features. Also, they are vulnerable to the single point of failure problem due to centralization. In this paper, we propose a private Ethereum blockchain-based solution to automate blood donation management in a manner that is decentralized, transparent, traceable, auditable, private, secure, and trustworthy. The proposed solution stores non-critical and large data off-chain using the decentralized storage of the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). We present the system architecture, sequence diagrams, entity-relationship diagram, and algorithms to briefly explain the working principles of our blood donation management solution. We evaluate the performance of our solution in terms of efficiency and effectiveness through performing security analysis. We make our smart contract code publicly available on Github1.
Mark Gaynor, Janet E. Tuttle‐Newhall, Jessica Parker, Arti Patel · 5 authors
This study aims to review current issues regarding the application of blockchain technology in health care. We illustrated the various ways in which blockchain can solve current health care issues in three main arenas: data exchange, contracts, and supply chain management. This paper presents several current and projected uses of blockchain technology in the health care industry. We predicted which of these applications are likely to be adopted quickly and provided a supply chain example of tracking the transportation of organs for transplantation.
As the population structure changes due to lower fertility rates and rapid aging, the blood supply available for blood transfusion decreases and demand increases. In most countries, blood management information systems, led by national institutions, operate centrally. However, existing centralized blood management systems have limitations in that they lack detailed blood information and, moreover, information is not reflected in real time. To solve this problem, this paper presents an innovative blood cold chain system based on blockchain technology. The proposed system aims to increase information visibility by recording the overall information on the blood supply and providing detailed blood information such as blood consumption and disposal to the distributed ledger. In addition, this paper proposes direct blood transactions between medical institutions in cases of emergency. Currently, blockchain technologies are being actively employed in the supply chain management and medical fields in addition to financial systems. Particularly, private blockchain techniques with limited participants are relatively fast and reliable, making them suitable for B2B (Business-to-Business) transactions. Therefore, the proposed system is based on the architecture of Hyperledger Fabric, a private blockchain technology implemented by the Hyperledger Composer tool. Information in the proposed blood cold chain system cannot be forged or tampered with, and information recorded and shared in real time is kept transparent. In addition, allowing for B2B blood transaction in special circumstances will minimize the blood supply time and enable patients to be transfused quickly. Moreover, the surplus blood of medical institutions will be used to increase the usage rate relative to the supply amount.
Ludwig Trotter, Mike Harding, Chris Elsden, Nigel Davies · 5 authors
We demonstrate Smart Donations, a blockchain powered mobile platform and application that facilitates a novel model for real-time, condition-based donations using smart contracts. By leveraging the benefits of blockchain technology, Smart Donations empower donors to (i) attach conditions dependent on real-world phenomena to a donation, (ii) store funds in a secure, transparent and decentralised escrow, and (iii) automatically release funds to charitable organisations or particular projects once the donor's conditions have been met. We believe this mobile prototype demonstrates a compelling new approach to charitable giving that leverages dynamic pledge controls and considers new trust relationships between donors and NGOs.
The organ donation system in the United States is centralized and difficult to audit by the general public. This centralized approach may lead to data integrity issues in the future. The Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN) was built and maintained by a non-governmental organization called the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) under its proprietary UNet(SM) umbrella platform. This platform is made up of proprietary closed source software and does not provide the general public easy access to the organ transplant data for auditing. This study investigates the feasibility, challenges, and advantages of a blockchain-based OPTN. A prototype of a blockchain-based OPTN was created using the Hyperledger Fabric framework. The policies and guidelines issued by the United States Department of Health and Human Services for UNOS and the OPTN were used as the basis of this prototype. Four factors were identified to have a direct effect on the performance of this system, viz. max batch time out, max block size, endorsement policy, and transaction rate. Additionally, two variants of the blockchain chaincode were also developed. The first variant performed the organ-candidate matching inside the blockchain (Scheme A), and the second variant performed it outside the blockchain (Scheme B). Analysis of these data showed that Scheme A outperformed Scheme B in all experiments for write-operations. However, the read operations remained unaffected by any of the experiment variables in the given environment. Based on these results, it is recommended to perform the organ-candidate matching on the blockchain with the max batch time out close to the transaction rate.
As humanitarian organizations are struggling to reach an increasing number of beneficiaries, humanitarian-business partnerships, such as the use of logistics service providers (LSPs), promise to improve effectivity and efficiency of humanitarian assistance. Blockchain-based smart contracts which ensure automation, transparency, and efficiency promise to facilitate partnerships, particularly if trust is low. In this paper, blockchain-based smart contracts are critically examined for their application to humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). We identify various adoption barriers which we categorize into organizational, technological, and environmental. As the use of blockchain-based smart contracts in HSCs is in its early stages, we propose future research propositions and directions that can provide insights into overcoming barriers and challenges of adopting the technology in the humanitarian sector.
Objective: This exploratory study examines how distributed ledger technologies could be used within the plasma derivatives supply chain. The plasma derivatives are used increasingly in the pharmaceutical market and the supply chain is global. However, there are significant risks relating to the governance of the supply. The risks include unclear origin of plasma and the propagation of contaminated or poor-quality blood to the pharmaceutical production process. From an ethical perspective, the risk is that vulnerable individuals are exploited in the donation process. Finally, the plasma supply chain currently depends on only a few exporters of plasma, which presents a supply chain risk. Design: The blockchain technology is piloted in other areas of pharmaceutical supply chains and in this study we examine those solutions and conceptualize how a similar solution can be applied to the plasma supply chain. We identify risks within the plasma supply chain and discuss how blockchain-based solutions can mitigate those risks. Results: Drawing on existing literature within the pharmaceutical blockchain arena, we introduce a solution to verify the origin of plasma. We also model how the blockchain technology can be used to tackle ethical and supply chain risks. Conclusions: Blockchain can have a role in mitigating plasma supply chain risks. The area is, however, novel and requires more research.
Blockchain technology is swiftly entering the fields of humanitarian and development aid. While it has the potential to revolutionize the aid sector, e.g., through pairing smart contracts with forecast-based financing, it also has the potential to perpetuate societal problems and add new risks. This essay outlines the use cases of Blockchain technology for the humanitarian and development sectors and reflects on potentials and pitfalls that come with the adaptation of this new technology.