Mexican medical firm embraces blockchain for covid test certificates

Medical services company MDS Mexico has launched a rapid covid-19 testing service that uses blockchain technology to verify results.

According to a Oct. 17 report from local media outlet iProUP news, MDS Mexico has launched a digital platform allowing its patients to access results that are updated in real-time. Results are also physically delivered, featuring a QR code that can be scanned to verify the results and access a patient’s vaccination history on MDS Mexico’s blockchain.

MDS stated that it adopted blockchain to safeguard the results of clinical tests, protect patients’ personal data, and prevent the falsification of covid test results. MDS’s website says:

“To avoid the falsification of negative results, we began to certify the SARS-CoV-2 detection tests with blockchain technology and cryptographic signature, which protects the information in a unique, immutable, and unalterable QR Code that can be verified worldwide.”

Testing results uploaded to MDS’s blockchain also includes a cryptographic signature from the doctor who verified the outcome of the test.

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MDS is not the first entity in Mexico to embrace blockchain for digitized covid test results, with Mexico’s National Chamber of Commerce (CANACO) announcing a state-backed initiative to digitize vaccination passports in partnership with private blockchain technology firm Xertify in April.

In August, blockchain industry representatives in Australia similarly pushed for the introduction of a blockchain-based vaccine registry to stem the proliferation of counterfeit COVID-19 vaccine passports online.