Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. Now, they are getting patents for blockchain systems for accessing medical records.
Here is the patent:
Here is abstract from the patent:
Abstract A method for obtaining a medical record of a patient that is unable to communicate, wherein the medical record of the patient is stored on a blockchain, is provided, including receiving an encrypted private key and a public key associated with the patient stored on a wearable device of the patient, in response to a scanning of the wearable device of the patient at a scene of an emergency, wherein the encrypted private key is decrypted by a biometric signature of the patient, obtaining the biometric signature of the patient by scanning a bodily feature of the patient, decrypting the encrypted private key using the biometric signature of the patient to determine a private key associated with the patient, and accessing the medical records of the patient, using a combination of the public key and the private key associated with the patient, to access a local storage medium of the wearable device.
It took a couple years to get the patent but if this turns out, this could be a time-saving lifesaver. First responders will be able to get a patient’s vital medical records using this technology and transfer the information between different players (paramedics, hospital etc).