Mexican medical firm embraces blockchain for COVID-19 test certificates

MDS Mexico will use blockchain technology to verify the authenticity of its rapid coronavirus test results.

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

According to a Sunday 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 delivered physically and feature 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-19 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-19 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 also pushed for the introduction of a blockchain-based vaccine registry to stem the proliferation of counterfeit COVID-19 vaccine passports online.