To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2019 has seen unprecedented demand for medical equipment and supplies. However, the problem of waste treatment has not yet been given due attention, i.e., the traditional waste treatment process is done independently, and it is not easy to share the necessary information. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the interaction between parties is minimized to limit infections. To evaluate the current system at medical centers, we also refer to the traditional waste treatment processes of four hospitals in Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh cities (Vietnam). Almost all hospitals are handled independently, lacking any interaction between the stakeholders. In this article, we propose a decentralized blockchain-based system for automating waste treatment processes for medical equipment and supplies after usage among the relevant parties, named Medical-Waste Chain. It consists of four components: medical equipment and supplies, waste centers, recycling plants, and sorting factories. Medical-Waste Chain integrates blockchain-based Hyperledger Fabric technology with decentralized storage of medical equipment and supply information, and securely shares related data with stakeholders. We present the system design, along with the interactions among the stakeholders, to ensure the minimization of medical waste generation. We evaluate the performance of the proposed solution using system-wide timing and latency analysis based on the Hyperledger Caliper engine. Our system is developed based on the hybrid-blockchain system, so it is fully scalable for both on-chain and off-chain-based extensions. Moreover, the participants do not need to pay any fees to use and upgrade the system. To encourage future use of Medical-Waste Chain, we also share a proof-of-concept on our Github repository.
More and more new health care solutions are born based on the development of science and technology. The subjects who benefit the most, in this case, are not only patients (i.e., shorter healing time, faster recovery) but also medical staff, e.g., doctors/nurses (i.e., easy monitoring of the patient's recovery process, proposing new treatment). However, there are still products that have not found an alternative: blood and blood products. Regardless of how science and technology can affect all aspects of patient treatment as well as medical care, blood still plays an important role in the treatment method. In addition to the above, blood and blood products may only be obtained from volunteers (i.e., blood donors). The preservation process is also very difficult, and no medical facility has enough facilities to preserve them. Therefore, the current process of blood preservation and transportation is done manually and contains many potential risks (e.g., data loss, personal information collection). In addition to the above barriers, developing countries (including Vietnam) also face many difficulties due to limited facilities. It is for this reason that this paper aims at a Blockchain-based technology solution for efficient management and distribution of blood from blood products. On the one hand, the paper contributes to the limitations in the information management process of storing and transporting blood and its products in the traditional database being applied in medical facilities in the cities and provinces in the Mekong Delta (the West-South of Vietnam). On the other hand, the article offers technology-based solutions to increase transparency and reduce the fear of centralized data storage (i.e., security and privacy issues). We also implement a proof-ofconcept to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed approach.
Current traditional shipping models are increasingly revealing many shortcomings and affecting the interests of sellers and buyers due to having to depend on trusted third parties. For example, the Cash-on-Delivery (CoD) model must depend on the carrier/shipper, or the Letter-of-Credit (LoC) model depends on the place of the Letter certification (i.e., bank). There have been many examples demonstrating the riskiness of the two models above. Specifically, in developing countries (e.g., Vietnam), the demand for exporting goods and trading between sellers and buyers have not yet applied the benefits of current technology to improve traditional shipping models. Two typical examples in the last five years that have demonstrated the risks of both sellers and buyers when applying CoD and LoC models are the problem of keeping the money of the seller of GNN Expresses (2017) as well as risks in losing control of 4 containers of cashew nuts when exporting from Vietnam to Italy (2021). A series of studies have proposed solutions based on distributed storage, blockchain, and smart contracts to solve the above problems. However, the role of the shipper has not been considered in some approaches or is not suitable for deployment in a developed country (i.e., Vietnam). In this paper, we propose a combination model between the traditional CoD model and blockchain technology, smart contracts, and NFT to solve the above problems. Specifically, our contribution includes four aspects: a) proposing a shipping model based on blockchain technology and smart contracts; b) proposing a model for storing package information based on Ethereum's NFT technology (i.e. ERC721); c) implementing the proposed model by designing smart contracts that support the creation and transfer of NFTs between sellers and buyers; d) deploy smart contracts on four EVM-enabled platforms including BNB Smart chain, Fantom, Celo, and Polygon to find a suitable platform for the proposed model.
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