VitalWatch Platform

Availability of medical facilities and equipment has become a challenge due to an exponential increase in the demand during this pandemic (Covid-19). Some major challenges we are witnessing are: 

- Lack of adequate PPE (gloves, face shields, respirators etc.) for frontline healthcare workers 

- Assignment of patients to appropriate medical facilities 

- Supply and utilization of critical medical devices by medical facilities 

The blockchain based solution will track essential medical resources like PPE kits, Hospital beds, and ventilators etc, at multiple hospitals as in various zones. This will help authorities in efficient management of critical medical resources. 

The solution would help all the involved parties to plan effectively and ensure optimum distribution and supply if it is scaled at global level. The entire medical community and decision makers in healthcare domain can customize and use the application to better manage the resources in pandemics and deal effectively with them. 

The problems we are trying to solve in order to address the above mentioned challenges are 

1. Data visibility of PPE and critical medical equipment to all stakeholders in the value chain. In current situation only hospitals have the data on how much resource they have in their inventory. The medical authorities (state or union) don’t have accurate and reliable info based on which they can take appropriate decisions 

2. The lack of accurate data visibility results in faulty patient handling where the authorities don’t have a clue on how to guide a patient to appropriate facility 

3. This lack of visibility also results in inefficient supply of critical equipment and consumables. 

In many cases the hospitals are purely dependant on the manual approach which is prone to errors. 

In COVID scenario, in above 80% of the cases, the lack of data visibility results in mismanagement of resources and wrong routing of patients. This ultimately leads to increased suffering and even death of the infected person. As the COVID infected numbers around the globe are still increasing, the resource data visibility and its management is the key to counter the disease. 

VitalWatch is a blockchain based platform to track essential medical resources like PPE, hospital bed, ventilator etc, at multiple hospitals in various zones.  

Being on blockchain, the data is immutable and available to all, but accessibility can be restricted based upon the provided rights.  

The solution would allow real-time sharing of data, which each party can then use to plan their operations. Using the data,  

• Union governments can view and manage critical resources at state level. 

• State governments can view and manage critical resources at zonal level. 

• Regions can view and manage critical resources at hospital level and plan for patient transfers to appropriate facilities. 

• Hospitals can better plan their inventory of critical resources. 

Technology used: Blockchain (Blockchain engine used- Hyperledger fabric) 

Key highlights of the solution: 

• Solution would involve creating a permissioned network for hospitals. Representatives from zone/ state/ union level will be default participants. 

• Channels will be created at zonal level to ensure the separation of data accessibility and bring privacy in effect 

• Dashboards with user-specific analyzed information so that the authorities can take informed decision. 

VitalWatch directly impacts the network participants and will improve the currently existing system of capacity planning and critical resource utilization. 

1. The medical/ government authorities, positioned at various levels, who are decision makers whilst dealing with the pandemic are direct beneficiary of ‘the solution’. The authorities who are in pandemic planning department will be significantly enabled to make better decision, by the immutable and trustworthy information provided by the application. 

2. The medical front line warriors and hospitals will able to deal with crisis of critical resources in planned and better way.  

3. The solution is helping authorities to guide patients to appropriate facilities which are better equipped with critical resources to treat the patients. 

Indirectly, the solution will impact millions of patients around the globe who are suffering from COVID and unable to get accurate information on which facility to approach upon the availability of critical equipment. 

We are engaged with of our LSH (Life Sciences and Healthcare) team to get ground level updates and insights on the real problems the hospitals, authorities and patients are facing. The solution is adequately designed to address the issues being faced by them and the patients. 

Currently, the data around the critical resources is either absent or not trustworthy or present with limited visibility. This is resulting in improper management of the critical resources and poor routing of patients to appropriate facilities. 

Our blockchain based solution, VitalWatch is designed to track essential medical resources like PPE. Hospital bed, ventilator etc, at multiple hospitals in various zones. 

These data are collected, and the analysis is provided to each participant on their dashboards based on their level and authority.  

This will help authorities in proper planning and efficient handling of critical medical resources and better patient handling. 

The blockchain technology is the VitalWatch’s foundational technology, which makes our solution different. The technology as well as design of the solution in orchestration makes our solution counter the challenges in better way. Some key pointers are: 

1. Data immutability and accountability- Immutable transaction records will ensure accountability and thus strengthen the trust in the system  

2. Ensuring privacy by creating channels at zonal levels- The solution will ensure privacy and only those parties that are authorized to see a particular piece of data will be able to see it. The partitions would be created based on regions/ zones to ensure that no unnecessary information is shared, since other regions would not benefit by data from other regions. 

3. Distributed and decentralized data makes our solution more resistant to faults. Shared ledger will ensure application livability in adverse scenarios caused by pandemic. 

VitalWatch is based on blockchain technology. 

Blockchain, is the decentralized ledger technology that can securely maintain continuously growing lists of records and transactions. Transactions are recorded in the form of blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography.  

Each such block contains typically a hash pointer as a link to a previous block, a timestamp and transaction data (usually represented as Merkle tree). 

With blockchain the trust required in transactions has been shifted to the technology. So, now it the technology based trust and it will mitigate the risks and uncertainties associated with the business transactions 

Blockchain is distributed, decentralised, cryptographically secured and ensures data immutability. Any participants can join the blockchain network i.e. public blockchain or only permissioned participant can join the network i.e. permissioned blockchain. 

The above key elements provide the required foundation to our solution where the data shared across network remain unaltered and immutable. This will make the whole data trustworthy and reliable in nature. Being immutable, the accountability factor of the participants gets automatically embedded in the application. Finally, the data and decisions are not centralized, so the control is equally dispersed in the value chain making it more amiable solution. 

Bitcoin (Most prominent example of public blockchain) 

Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Unlike fiat currency, Bitcoin is created, distributed, traded, and stored with the use of a decentralized ledger system known as a blockchain.  

It is a decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries 

Bitcoin, over the last 11 years, has truly disrupted the world’s economy and financial systems by providing a payment system that is ahead of its time. 

IBM Food Trust (key use case of permissioned blockchain) 

A modular solution built on blockchain, benefiting all network participants with a safer, smarter and more sustainable food ecosystem. 

IBM Food Trust™ is a collaborative network of growers, processors, wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers, retailers, and others, enhancing visibility and accountability across the food supply chain. Built on Blockchain, this solution connects participants through a permissioned, immutable and shared record of food provenance, transaction data, processing details, and more. 

Activities: Hospitals in various zones provide data on the stock and utilization of critical equipment (Ventilators, respirators, hospital beds etc) and essential consumables (PPE kits, had sanitizers etc) at regular intervals in a day. The data (raw & analysed, on the critical resources) is viewed by the govt offices and health executives at various levels, on their dashboards. 

Outputs: The critical resource data (raw and analysed) helps in capacity forecasting based on utilization trends.  

State governments to plan and manage critical resources at zonal level. 

Regions to plan and manage critical resources at hospital level and Assign/ route patients to facilities based on Critical equipment availability  

Hospitals to better plan their inventory of critical resources. 

Outcomes: The health authorities and govt officials who are decision makers or provide guidance on logistics of critical resources will have accurate, immutable and trustworthy data  based on which they will be able to do efficient planning and better manage the pandemic or any other critical resource crisis situation. They will able to channelize the resources to appropriate state/ zone/ hospitals. 

The health officers at zonal level will be able to guide infected persons effectively to appropriate facilities and save them from further suffering or even death. 

Next Year Goals:  

• To achieve limited roll out of VitalWatch with help of MIT Team and our internal GTM team. 

• Refine and bolster the application and add relevant user stories & features based on advice gathered from MIT Solve and other industry experts. 

Five Years goals: 

• Enhance the functionality of our application by adding Machine learning and Ai capabilities. 

• Keep looking for diversified use cases other than pandemic to increase the sustainability of the application 

• Achieve global roll out of VitalWatch  

Barriers- Next year: 

• Govt Buy-in: Our biggest challenge 

• Lack of governance model and standards 

• Cultural adoption-/change in ways of working 

• Manual intervention reducing the accuracy of the system due to associated random errors 

Barriers- Next five years: 

• Reduced applicability 

• Changed scenario- legal, technical or political. 

• Emergence of upgraded systems at facilities 

Counter to barriers: Next year 

• Govt Buy-in: Our biggest challenge- Will try pitching it to various stakeholder with help of our internal sales and GTM teams. MIT Solve platform will provide the essential boost, expert advice to refine the solution and act as a launchpad to VitalWatch.  

• Lack of governance model and standards- With the help of richer insights from experts and industry players, we will try to develop or aid in development of framework for pragmatic standards and governance model 

• Cultural adoption-/change in ways of working- Training sessions and workshops to break the barrier of cultural adoption 

• Human intervention reducing the accuracy of the system due to associated random errors: Training to reduce errors by training. Reduce manual processes in steps by upgrading the system. 

Counter to barriers -Next five years: 

• Reduced applicability- Introduce adoption/ customization so that the application remains valuable even when the pandemic is gone. 

• Changed scenario- legal, technical or political. Insert provision in the application to address the future changes 

• Emergence of upgraded systems- The solution design of the blockchain application will be provisioned to accommodate future modifications/ upgradation.

HCL Technologies is a next-generation global technology company that helps enterprises re-imagine their businesses for the digital age. HCL’s Digital & Analytics practice in alignment with the larger 21st Century Enterprise Strategy is focused on bringing transformation for our customers and to ensure that their business model is relevant in ever-changing business eco-system. HCL Blockchain capabilities is integrated part of this practice.  

HCL’s Blockchain Labs is a solution driven Practice that leverages the solid domain experience from various industries like FS, Manufacturing, LSH etc. This is important for providing guidance for understanding business value chain for Blockchain implementation 

5 person team was engaged in drafting and developing this prototype.

Practice core team consists of 80+ Blockchain practitioners i.e. Blockchain architects, developers, business architects and solution experts across the globe. 50+ of these are blockchain certified professionals. Our Practice brings expertise in key enterprise Blockchain Engines (ex: Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum, R3 Corda, Hyperledger Indy).  

Our team is a solution driven team with expertise across key enterprise blockchain platforms such as Hyperledger, Ethereum, MultiChain, R3 Corda and others. Our engineering DNA combined with strong domain expertise enable us to deliver value using blockchain based solutions. 

While creating solution we have leveraged the solid domain experience from of HCL’s Life Sciences and Healthcare team. We gained a lot of guidance in understanding the real issues of the pandemic from the frontline staff and healthcare SMEs. We created our solution ensuring constant focus on countering those issues which makes us confident that the designed solution will generate value for all its direct and indirect participants. 

Project: VitalWatch  Blockchain Platform 

Key Resources: VitalWatch digital blockchain platform captures the availability of “Critical healthcare Equipment (CE)” e.g. hospital beds, PPE kits and ventilators on near real-time basis using blockchain. The platform enables network of hospitals, state and federal agencies working collaboratively to make sure the CE’s are replenished on time and utilised in the best possible way. 

Partners + Key Stakeholders: Zonal, Regional and federal Govt health agencies are candidates for this platform in collaboration with Hospitals. 

Key Activities: Critical Equipment tracking in each hospital, forecasting, real time updates about equipment utilization. Capacity forecasting based on utilization trends. Assigning patients to facilities based on Critical equipment availability 

Type of Intervention: Capacity planning and utilization of Critical Equipment 

Channels: Using the MIT Solve platform and the enterprise sales channel 

Segments: Federal and Govt health agencies are the potential buyers of this solution. 

Value Proposition: Biggest issue in COVID response is guiding the patient in the event of infection. Using VitalWatch platform, healthcare helplines can quickly track the Critical Equipment availability status in each hospital & facility and will guide the patient to the facility where required care can be provided. Govt agencies can forecast the requirement and will track utilization channel replenishment in each zone/region.  

Benefits: Effective patient care, right allocation of equipment & patient, better forecasting. 

Cost Structure: Platform development, hosting/cloud services, marketing/promotions, staff. 

Revenue Source: Platform buyers, HCL Internal funding 

Revenue Source :  

• Platform buyers 

• HCL Internal funding 

• Sells business support to the buyers

• Fee-for-service model.