Blockchain-Based Forward Supply Chain and Waste Management for COVID-19 Medical Equipment and Supplies

Ahmad, Raja Wasim; Salah, Khaled; Jayaraman, Raja; Yaqoob, Ibrar; Omar, Mohammed; Ellahham, Samer

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3066503

Cited by 128 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In addition, the proposed system also addressed a major concern about such vaccines, by also supporting on-chain recording of side-effects. Ahmad and colleagues 35 instead demonstrated the use of blockchain to manage an entire forward supply chain and waste management of COVID-19-related medical equipment and supplies. Similarly, their blockchain was designed with Ethereum architecture in combination with smart contracts, highlighting the versatility of Ethereum.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blockchain applications in health care for COVID-19 and beyond: a systematic review

Ng¹,

Tan²,

Movva³

et al. 2021

The Lancet Digital Health

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial and global impact on health care, and has greatly accelerated the adoption of digital technology. One of these emerging digital technologies, blockchain, has unique characteristics (eg, immutability, decentralisation, and transparency) that can be useful in multiple domains (eg, management of electronic medical records and access rights, and mobile health). We conducted a systematic review of COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related applications of blockchain in health care. We identified relevant reports published in MEDLINE, SpringerLink, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Xplore, ScienceDirect, arXiv, and Google Scholar up to July 29, 2021. Articles that included both clinical and technical designs, with or without prototype development, were included. A total of 85 375 articles were evaluated, with 415 full length reports (37 related to COVID-19 and 378 not related to COVID-19) eventually included in the final analysis. The main COVID-19-related applications reported were pandemic control and surveillance, immunity or vaccine passport monitoring, and contact tracing. The top three non-COVID-19-related applications were management of electronic medical records, internet of things (eg, remote monitoring or mobile health), and supply chain monitoring. Most reports detailed technical performance of the blockchain prototype platforms (277 [66·7%] of 415), whereas nine (2·2%) studies showed real-world clinical application and adoption. The remaining studies (129 [31·1%] of 415) were themselves of a technical design only. The most common platforms used were Ethereum and Hyperledger. Blockchain technology has numerous potential COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related applications in health care. However, much of the current research remains at the technical stage, with few providing actual clinical applications, highlighting the need to translate foundational blockchain technology into clinical use.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blockchain applications in health care for COVID-19 and beyond: a systematic review

Ng¹,

Tan²,

Movva³

et al. 2021

The Lancet Digital Health

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“…Rather, they discuss only the benefits and design challenges involved in adopting blockchain technology for waste management. The blockchain-based solution to track COVID-19 medical equipment in Ahmad et al (2021) does not consider crucial aspects, such as payment channel, access control and incentive mechanism, when dealing with bio-medical waste products. Moreover, the authors considered a partial life-cycle of the waste products by ignoring the RSC part in their proposal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The primary aim of the proposal was to validate the amount of e-waste to be exchanged between the stakeholders. Ahmad et al (2021) proposed a blockchain-based solution to track COVID-19 medical equipment and supplies in the FSC. The authors introduced a set of rules for COVID-19 waste management and penalties for the stakeholders in case of violations.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

A unified blockchain-based platform for global e-waste management

Sahoo

Mukherjee²,

Halder

2021

IJWIS

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Purpose The rapid technological growth, changes in consumer demands, products’ built-in obsolescence, presence of more non-repairable parts, shorter lifespan, etc., lead to the generation of e-waste at an unprecedented rate. Although a number of research proposals and business products to manage e-waste exist in the literature, they lack in many aspects such as incomplete coverage of product’s life cycle, access control, payment channels (in few cases), incentive mechanisms, scalability issues, and missing experimental validation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel blockchain-based e-waste management system aiming to mitigate the above-mentioned downsides and limitations of the existing proposals. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a robust and reliable e-waste management system by leveraging the power of blockchain technology, which captures the complete life cycle of e-products commencing from their manufacturing as new products to their disposal as e-waste and their recycling back into raw materials. Findings While the use of blockchain technology increases accountability, transparency and trust in the system, the proposal overcomes various challenges and limitations of the existing systems by providing seamless interactions among various agencies. Originality/value This paper presents a prototype implementation of the system as a proof-of-concept using solidity on the Ethereum platform and this paper performs experimental evaluations to demonstrate its feasibility and effective performance in terms of execution gas cost and transaction throughput.

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“…Six studies examined the implementation of digitalization, visibility and transparency technologies in SC and the critical circumstances of COVID-19 [18,22,[108][109][110][111]. Smart-contact technology, on the other hand, is one of the areas of BC technology that has received some slight attention in the literature, resulting in only two studies [21,112]. Furthermore, one article examining digitalization and smart contracts [113], another article evaluating visibility and smart contracts [114], one article assessing digitalization, visibility, and smart contact technologies [115], and one research topic also looked into digitalization, transparency, and smart contract technologies [116].…”

Section: Blockchain Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With 12 research papers since the outbreak, the healthcare industry has made a significant contribution to the reviewed articles. Eight of them were solely on healthcare matters [3,58,62,67,80,93,112,117], while two dealt with healthcare and transportation [81,96] and one dealt with the healthcare and retail sector [99]. Eight articles discuss various areas of the industry.…”

Section: Industry Sectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Deploying Blockchain Technologies in Supply Chain Strategies and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Outlook

Nabipour

Ülkü

2021

Sustainability

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The emergence of a new pandemic, known as COVID-19, has touched various sections of the supply chain (SC). Since then, numerous studies have been conducted on the issue, but the need for a holistic review study that highlights the gaps and limits of previous research, as well as opportunities and agendas for future studies, is palpable. Through a systematic literature review on blockchain technology (BCT) deployment in supply-chain management (SCM) concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, this research seeks to add to the content of previous studies and to enlighten the path for future studies. Relevant papers were found using a variety of resources (Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and ProQuest). Seventy-two articles were systematically selected, considering the PRISMA procedure, and were thoroughly analyzed based on BCT, methodologies, industrial sectors, geographical, and sustainability context. According to our findings, there is a significant lack of empirical and quantitative methodologies in the literature. The majority of studies did not take specific industries into account. Furthermore, the articles focusing on the sustainability context are few, particularly regarding social and environmental issues. In addition, most of the reviewed papers did not consider the geographical context. The results indicate that the deployment of BCT in several sectors is not uniform, and this utilization is reliant on their services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the concentration of research on the impacts of the BCT on SCM differs according to the conditions of various countries in terms of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also show that there is a direct relationship between the deployment of BCT and sustainability factors, such as economic and waste issues, under the circumstances surrounding COVID-19. Finally, this study offers research opportunities and agendas to help academics and other stakeholders to gain a better knowledge of the present literature, recognize aspects that necessitate more exploration, and drive prospective studies.

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Blockchain-Based Forward Supply Chain and Waste Management for COVID-19 Medical Equipment and Supplies

Cited by 128 publications

References 27 publications

Blockchain applications in health care for COVID-19 and beyond: a systematic review

Blockchain applications in health care for COVID-19 and beyond: a systematic review

A unified blockchain-based platform for global e-waste management

On Deploying Blockchain Technologies in Supply Chain Strategies and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Outlook

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