Alibaba is partnering with Chinese authorities to launch the country’s first application of Blockchain technology in the medical sector.
Taking place in the city of Changzhou, Ali Health will work with local government to use Blockchain to secure data in a pioneering approach.
“Ali Health’s Blockchain technology connects information by using our current equipment and systems,” Zhang Zhihong, director at Zhenglu Town Health Center in Changzhou told local news resource Yicai Global.
“It is cost effective and safe. With Blockchain, health centers and district hospitals are interconnected so that the people can enjoy convenient medical services.”
Full details of the scheme are still forthcoming, but will involve creation of “a number of data security nets” and storage of data in ciphertext with “strict access controls and operational privileges.”
The move is just the latest state-sanctioned Blockchain experiment to get the green light in China, this week also seeing tax processes begin working with the technology.
Worldwide, an increasing number of countries have turned to Blockchain for medical record security, including Estonia and most recently India.
The latter this month announced a joint partnership with City University London to create a consortium to study how the technology can protect healthcare and Internet of Things infrastructure in the wake of the WannaCry cyberattacks.
When ransomware attackers struck in May, the UK’s National Health Service was paralyzed due to insufficient security and extensive use of legacy hardware and software.