Blockchain-Based Emergency Information Sharing System for Public Health Security

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused severe human casualties and economic losses. Strengthening research on the coordination of public health security emergency information and building a more efficient and credible emergency information sharing system have become the core issues to optimize the public health security information management in China. This study analyzes the structure and connotations of public health security emergency information and proposes a new structure for emergency information management of sudden epidemics in China. We create a hierarchical blockchain model for information sharing among emergency response departments based on the blockchain distributed trust mechanism and elaborate the emergency information consortium blockchain, block structure, and implementation of the side chain interaction mechanism. Moreover, the uploading, sharing, downloading, and backtracking processes of emergency information are presented. Using the COVID-19 epidemic control in Nanjing as an example, we verify the validity of this model through scenario simulation and propose policy recommendations for responding to the epidemic. This study is expected to provide a decision-making reference and feasible path for building a new public health information system in China that meets the needs of prevention and control of major epidemics.

Keywords

• COVID-19 pandemic,public health security,emergency information,sharing,consortium blockchain