Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Awards Grant to Factom

Blockchain-based company Factom has announced it will soon secure medical records on its platform. The firm received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to provide immutable and easily accessible records.

Also read: Synereo Aims to ‘Fundamentally Redesign the Internet’ 

Gates Foundation Grant to Produce Distributed Medical Database

Factom, the blockchain as-a-service (BaaS) technology company, has been steadily progressing its project. The company’s most recent efforts have been a partnership with Intrinio to keep Wall Street records on the blockchain, and a grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The firm also secured 4.2 million in a funding round led by investor Tim Draper of Draper Associates.  

Now Factom has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to keep globally distributed medical records with biometric verification. BMGF is the largest private foundation in the world, which aims to bolster global healthcare. Traditionally, keeping medical records has been cumbersome and paper-based. Factom says creating blockchain records makes things more affordable, and protects these records from loss or manipulation.

Factom Based Record Keeping Could Benefit the Developing World

The Factom BaaS service has positioned itself as a blockchain that secures data. For the DHS, the platform will be used to secure the agency’s sensors and devices. By securing medical records, Factom believes they can implement a better solution around the globe.

“Creating medical records around an individual and securing them with the Factom blockchain solves both these problems in an affordable and practical way that may provide unique benefits for the developing world,” the company explained.

Factom said the blockchain-based system will give medical professionals and hospitals the data they need in real-time. This can be detrimental to treating diseases in the “ever-shifting environment of the developing world,” it added. A medical professional can access information via a smartphone and look up vaccination records for babies. Or an HIV-infected person can access their own viral load measurement results via the Factom blockchain.

Blockchain-Based Healthcare Grows Popular       

Factom believes the technology can save lives and costs, especially in developing nations. Some of these nations have the world’s deadliest diseases and access to medical and vaccination records can mean life or death for patients. However, there are competitors within the blockchain industry aiming for the same goals in the healthcare environment. Projects like Gem Health and even the U.S. government have been pushing similar healthcare ideas.

Factom said it will on providing technological innovations to society. By hosting necessary medical and vaccination records, this type of data can be time-stamped and verified more easily.

What do you think about the company recording medical records and receiving a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Pixabay. 

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