Quadrant Protocol at European Blockchain Observatory & Forum
By: Nikos, Quadrant Protocol
Tags: Blockchain, Data Compliance, Gdpr, European Commission, Data Privacy

Blockchain is exciting technology, and this technology has capabilities that that go beyond cryptocurrencies — one of those is the usage of blockchain in the healthcare applications. To develop the larger scope and outlook of blockchain-based data applications in healthcare, our CEO Mike Davie sat down for a roundtable discussion in the special edition of the European Blockchain Observatory & Forum on 24 September 2020.

The European Union Blockchain Observatory and Forum, an official initiative by the European Commission, aims to accelerate blockchain innovation and the development of the blockchain ecosystem within the EU, and so help cement Europe’s position as a global leader in this transformative new technology.

The workshop gathered stakeholders and experts to examine the main opportunities that blockchain offers to healthcare applications, thereby supporting the European Commission’s efforts to provide insights for the industry.

Mike joined blockchain industry leaders and academics such as Peteris Ziligalvis — Head of Unit, Digital Innovation and Blockchain at DG CONNECT, Sinica Alboaie & Marco Cuomo of Novartis, Dr. Wendy Charles of Burst IQ, Ingrid Vasiliu Feltes Senator WBAF, Dr. Bryant Joseph from the Institute for Translational Bioinformatics, Universitaets Klinikum Tuebingen.

Key Takeaways

Mr.Votis from CERTH has summarized the potential applications of the blockchain in the healthcare domain :

The pain points he mentioned that the industry is facing can be summarized as follows:

Clinical Trials & Genomics

Data privacy & security

Data ownership & sharing

Data monetization

Medicine Supply Chains

Certification

Raw material traceability

Storage conditions monitoring

Logistics Tracking

Anti — Counterfeiting

Documentation

Certification validity

Supplier qualification monitoring

Governance

Regulation

Healthcare systems

Marco Cuomo and Sinica Alboaie from Novartis and Romsoft presented the Pharmaledger project. This project aims to provide a widely trusted platform that supports the design and adoption of blockchain-enabled healthcare solutions while accelerating delivery of innovation that benefits the entire ecosystem, from manufacturers to patients.

Dr. Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes, offered a really insightful presentation, summarizing the opportunities and challenges in deploying blockchain solutions globally, mainly from governments and public agencies.

In short, the elements of success as summarized by Dr. Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes are the following:

Start with Advocacy

Leverage Science Institutes and Technoparks

Strict Feasibility Analysis

Thorough Process & Failure Mode Analysis before accepting projects

Human capital (training & development)

Conservative Financial Projections

Realistic timelines

Involve largest or most vehement opponents early in the process

Lastly our CEO Mike Davie gave a widely anticipated talk titled “Accelerating innovation using 3rd Party Data”.

While Quadrant’s expertise is in location data, data is data, and the nature of problems plaguing data transactions are universal. With that, Mike elaborated on the problems limiting the location data industry:

Cross-Contamination

The location data supply chain is heavily interconnected where data providers sell to multiple aggregators, who then sell amongst each other prior to reaching the end user. This is done to meet the scale required by users, but results in an opaque web of suppliers, with no clear ownership of or rights to the data.

Stricter Regulations and Laws

Lawmakers around the world are taking data privacy and the data supply chain more seriously, implementing new regulations(GDPR, CCPA, etc) that highlight the importance of legitimate sources of location data.

Disparate Sources of Location Data

Buyers of location data must go through multiple location data vendors for data that fits their use case, usually resulting in a patchwork of contracts to fulfill their requirements. A single supplier scenario is difficult to find in the current market.

He highlighted the innovations and safeguards that Quadrant is in place to tackle these problems, putting Quadrant at the lead of third-party data transactions:

Mike then went on to highlight three Boots-on-the-Ground issues that are prevalent when it comes to solving earlier-mentioned problems with the usage of blockchain technology:

Do we really need a blockchain?

It’s speed is slow

Difficult to work with

Small Engineering talent pool

It’s only value is when people don’t trust each other

Do enterprises care enough to make the hassle worth the investment?

Payments for ‘gas’ (crypto currencies) a no-no

Code heavy integrations

Clunky interfaces (if any)

How to distribute when it isn’t meant for the public?

General public doesn’t want to support B2B

Why expose yourself to attacks if not required

Who to distribute if not to the public

When it comes to data transactions, we operate in a system where all parties inherently don’t trust each other! This itself makes blockchain as the ultimate solution, and Mike responded how we have overcome the mentioned problems.

Our solutions:

Optimized Operations for blockchain

Non-Realtime, asynchronous operations

Minimal operations on chain

Skill-up

Enterprise ready:

Entreprises pay with and get paid in fiat

API Backend

Seamless UX Front-end

Engineered for public operations:

PoA Private Chain mixed with ERC20 public token

Keep nodes protected and not randomly distributed

Nodes controlled by us, and will be distributed to industry figures

You can review and download Mike’s presentation here:

https://www.eublockchainforum.eu/sites/default/files/data-exchange-safeguarding-3rd-party-data-transacting-with-blockchain.pdf

A big thank you to everyone that participated in the event! We are thrilled and humbled to have a rapidly expanding community of enthusiastic supporters building around Quadrant’s Data Ecosystem. We know through your help that it’s only a matter of time before access to authenticated and legitimate sources of decentralized data becomes the driving engine of major industries such as healthcare.

For those who prefer to watch the video from the workshop, you may do so at the official YouTube channel of the European Blockchain Observatory and Forum:

We want to give you every opportunity to stay involved. Please continue sending your questions and suggestions and check our official channels in Telegram | Twitter | Facebook |Reddit and sign-up for our newsletter at www.quadrantprotocol.com for regular updates.