COVID-19 Digital Vaccination Passport Based on Blockchain with Its Own Cryptocurrency as a Reward and Mobile App for Its Use

Due to the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, everybody’s lives have changed dramatically and society went through new stages accompanied by new needs. This article details a solution for one of these needs, since it provides a system of digital certificates for the secure storage and sharing of medical data related to COVID-19, with the goal of demonstrating immunity or lack of viral infection in a unequivocal, unbreakable and secure way. The proposed system is based on Blockchain and its inherent benefits, developing also a decentralized, mobile and multiplatform app for its use and an incentive system with a customized cryptocurrency in order to reward the users who use it.

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Neurological Manifestations of COVID-19 patients: An Updated Review and Observations of COVID Patients in the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Journal of Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons ◽

10.3329/jbcps.v38i0.47869 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 122-132

Author(s):

Mohammad Enayet Hussain ◽

Md Azharul Hoque ◽

Md Badrul Alam ◽

Md Abdullah Yusuf ◽

Rajib Nayan Chowdhury ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nervous System ◽

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽

Viral Infection ◽

Clinical Manifestation ◽

Early Experience ◽

Neurological Manifestations ◽

Recent Outbreak ◽

Near Future

Involvement of the nervous system after viral infection is common. Certain viruses show neurotropism. Recent outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV 2 (SARSCov- 2) virus has also exhibited neurotropic properties with various neurological manifestations. The pathophysiology of their neurotropism is not yet clearly known. The details of pathophysiology, clinical manifestation and management are expected to be explored in the near future. Here we review the Neurological manifestations of COVID-19 and the early experience in the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital. J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2020; 38(0): 122-132

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An Efficient E2C2 Visual Cryptographic Technique to Secure Medical Images in Cloud Environment

International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering - Special Issue ◽

10.35940/ijitee.b6491.129219 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 4709-4714

Keyword(s):

High Performance ◽

Medical Images ◽

Medical Data ◽

Data Availability ◽

Cloud Environment ◽

Cloud Platform ◽

Storage And Retrieval ◽

Aes Algorithm ◽

Secure Storage ◽

Secure Authentication

Secure storage and easy retrieval of data is major concern for patients when medical data is stored over cloud platform. The unique features of cloud environment are high performance, data availability and security among which security of data stored in cloud environment is sensitive it can be easily attacked by intruders. Concerning medical images, while storing data, proper secure authentication method should be applied in order to avoid misuse of medical data. When this medical image is retrieved, the clarity of retrieved image should be high in order to determine the exact cause of sickness. This paper focuses on proposing a secure storage and retrieval of medical images stored in cloud with visual cryptographic technique using AES algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed system is able to store images securely and retrieve medical images with high clarity.

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An Efficient Certificateless Aggregate Signature Scheme for Blockchain-Based Medical Cyber Physical Systems

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20051521 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (5) ◽

pp. 1521 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Hong Shu ◽

Ping Qi ◽

Yongqing Huang ◽

Fulong Chen ◽

Dong Xie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Records ◽

Cyber Physical Systems ◽

Medical Data ◽

Security Requirements ◽

Signature Scheme ◽

Bilinear Maps ◽

Signature Schemes ◽

Physical Systems ◽

Secure Storage ◽

Aggregate Signature

Different from the traditional healthcare field, Medical Cyber Physical Systems (MCPS) rely more on wireless wearable devices and medical applications to provide better medical services. The secure storage and sharing of medical data are facing great challenges. Blockchain technology with decentralization, security, credibility and tamper-proof is an effective way to solve this problem. However, capacity limitation is one of the main reasons affecting the improvement of blockchain performance. Certificateless aggregation signature schemes can greatly tackle the difficulty of blockchain expansion. In this paper, we describe a two-layer system model in which medical records are stored off-blockchain and shared on-blockchain. Furthermore, a multi-trapdoor hash function is proposed. Based on the proposed multi-trapdoor hash function, we present a certificateless aggregate signature scheme for blockchain-based MCPS. The purpose is to realize the authentication of related medical staffs, medical equipment, and medical apps, ensure the integrity of medical records, and support the secure storage and sharing of medical information. The proposed scheme is highly computationally efficient because it does not use bilinear maps and exponential operations. Many certificateless aggregate signature schemes without bilinear maps in Internet of things (IoT) have been proposed in recent years, but they are not applied to the medical field, and they do not consider the security requirements of medical data. The proposed scheme in this paper has high computing and storage efficiency, while meeting the security requirements in MCPS.

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Exploring the COVID-19 Pandemic as a Catalyst for PHR Application User Behavior Change in Taiwan: A Development and Usability Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.33399 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Chin-Yang Tseng ◽

Ray-Jade Chen ◽

Shang-Yu Tsai ◽

Tsung-Ren Wu ◽

Woei-Jiunn Tsaur ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Laboratory Test ◽

Data Retrieval ◽

Medical Data ◽

Mobile App ◽

Steady Increase ◽

Test Results ◽

Log Data ◽

Hospital Medical ◽

Laboratory Test Results ◽

Access Logs

BACKGROUND During the COVID-19 pandemic, personal health records (PHRs) have enabled patients to monitor and manage their medical data without visiting hospitals and, consequently, minimize their infection risk. Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) launched the My Health Bank (MHB) service, a national PHR system through which insured individuals to access their cross-hospital medical data. Furthermore, in 2019, the NHIA released the MHB software development kit (SDK), which enables development of mobile applications with which insured individuals can retrieve their MHB data. However, the NHIA MHB service has its limitations, and the participation rate among insured individuals is low. OBJECTIVE We aimed to integrate the MHB SDK with our developed blockchain-enabled PHR mobile app, which enables patients to access, store, and manage their cross-hospital PHR data. We also collected and analyzed the application’s log data to examine patients’ MHB use during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS We integrated our existing blockchain-enabled mobile application with the MHB SDK to enable NHIA MHB data retrieval. The application utilizes blockchain technology to encrypt the downloaded NHIA MHB data. Existing and new indexes can be synchronized between the application and blockchain nodes, and high security can be achieved for PHR management. Finally, we analyzed the application’s access logs to compare patients’ activities during high and low COVID-19 infection periods. RESULTS We successfully integrated the MHB SDK into our application, thereby enabling patients to retrieve their cross-hospital medical data, particularly those related to COVID-19 rapid and polymerase chain reaction testing and vaccination information and progress. We retrospectively collected the application’s log data for the period July 2019 to June 2021. From January 2020, the preliminary results revealed a steady increase in the number of people applying to create a blockchain account for access to their medical data and the number of application subscribers among patients visiting the outpatient department (OPD) and emergency department (ED). Notably, for patients visiting the OPD and ED, the peak proportions with respect to the use of the application for OPD and ED notes and laboratory test results also increased year by year. The highest proportions were 52.40% for ED notes in June 2021, 88.10% for ED laboratory test results in May 2021, 34.61% for OPD notes in June 2021, and 41.87% for OPD laboratory test results in June 2021. These peaks coincided with Taiwan’s local COVID-19 outbreak lasting from May to June 2021. CONCLUSIONS This study developed a blockchain-enabled application, which can periodically retrieve and integrate PHRs from the NHIA MHB's cross-hospital data and the investigated hospital's self-pay medical data. Analysis of users’ access logs revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic substantially increased individuals’ use of PHRs and their health awareness with respect to COVID-19 prevention.

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Classification of Pregnancy Apps in Medical Technology Despite the Coronavirus

10.21203/rs.3.rs-108765/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Mohammad Reza Mazaheri Habibi ◽

fateme Moghbeli

Keyword(s):

Pregnant Women ◽

Mobile Applications ◽

Mobile App ◽

Google Scholar ◽

Exclusion Criteria ◽

The Public ◽

Research Article ◽

Technological Advances ◽

Recent Outbreak

Abstract BackgroundThe use of mobile applications is very popular among the public these days. Pregnant women are a segment of society who need constant care to monitor their condition and that of the fetus. Pregnant women find it very difficult to keep track of their condition. An application software is needed. But choosing a reliable application is important. MethodsThe article is a research article that uses PRISMA flowchart to extract articles. Given that there are many apps in the field of pregnancy and due to technological advances as well as the recent outbreak of coronavirus disease, so the articles of the last 10 years that have been scientifically published in the databases of Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct have been analyzed. The most widely used and at the same time the best app is introduced in terms of its high usability.ResultsAfter searching for the keywords m-health, pregnancy, mobile app, coronavirus, covid-19 and combining them in databases according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 23 articles were finally reached. In the initial search, 3, 18 and 292 articles were extracted in PubMed, Science Direct and Google Scholar, respectively. According to the search strategy, 23 articles were identified qualitatively by reviewing both authors. Then, the types of apps were divided into three general categories, pregnant entertainment apps, pregnant information apps, and monitoring apps for mothers' physical health. Finally, 10 apps were selected and the Amila app was introduced as the best due to its high usability.ConclusionConsidering that pregnant women are an important segment of society and in addition to their health, the health of the fetus is also important to them, and also despite the coronavirus and the difficulty of mothers traveling for check-ups and checking their condition, As a result, using trusted apps to maintain their health and reduce traffic in the current situation will be very important. Given that this research article was written with the aim of choosing the best app, so it can be a suggestion for pregnant women and even gynecologists to introduce such apps to their patients.

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