The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Health and Prevention today announced the launch of a new blockchain-based platform for healthcare data that collaborates with the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Dubai Healthcare City and other health authorities in the region.

MoHAP’s platform is designed for secure storage of data for health, pharmaceutical government and private facilities, health practitioners and drug information.

The objective is to use blockchain distributed ledger technology, which underlies the popular digital currency bitcoin and systems such as the food safety tracking platform IBM Food Trust, to raise the efficacy of MoHAP’s and other organization’s smart health services, which make extensive use of digital technologies to connect health providers.

“This blockchain-based platform would help secure an unchangeable, decentralized and encrypted database with high-security protection to verify data validity and reliability,” said Lubna Al Shaali, director of the Public Health Policy Department.

The new platform will also become part of MoHAP’s plans to incorporate artificial intelligence into health services. This follows a vision laid out by the UAE government with the AE Artificial Intelligence Strategy project.

“The transition to the AI technologies is in line with the directives of the wise leadership to make the UAE a leading global model in the proactive confrontation of future challenges and focus on smart health care,” said Amin Hussein Al Amiri, assistant undersecretary of the Ministry of Health and Prevention’s Public Health Policy and Licenses. “The AI-based projects will play a key role in enhancing the capabilities of health care services and providing smart medical solutions, in accordance with the UAE Centennial 2071, and its artificial intelligence strategy.”

With the combination of AI and blockchain technology, alongside accompanying high-end equipment, MoHAP believes that it will form a significant shift in the public and private health industries of UAE. It will also be used to better regulate the healthcare industry, track outcomes and provide life-saving information throughout the region.

Lubna added that the use of blockchain technology would improve data and information verification related to healthcare.

The technology is sought after because it secures transactions using massive distribution and cryptography, meaning that once a transaction is recorded to the blockchain it becomes near-impossible to modify, making past data difficult to forge.

For example, pharmaceutical data recorded from drug use by public and private hospitals and health providers could be recorded to the MoHAP blockchain as it is used in the population. Healthcare researchers could then use that data as a pool to better understand the use of individual drugs and the outcomes of its use in the population.

In turn, regulatory and health administration agencies could more readily view how much drug is being used in the population and its effect on patients, and better understand how the regional health industry is using its tools to approach health issues.

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