Welcome and Opening Statements

• A reminder to all HC-SIG members that this meeting is being recorded
  • Videoconferencing/teleconferencing connect details are available here
    
    

• Reading of the Linux Foundation Antitrust Policy

  • Hyperledger Antitrust Slide
    
    

Widget Connector
url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5uS_IwzpTY&list=PL0MZ85B_96CFL_JrgiNL71-riq9j2dkmw&index=59

In attendance:

• Erika Beerbower (host)
• Rich Bloch
• Adrian Gropper
• andrew
• Archana Sristy
• Aruna S M
• Asma Ishak-Mahdi
• Bilal
• Bilal Saleh
• Brajesh Awasthi
• Brian Behlendorf
• christopherkelly
• David Boswell
• Debbbie Bucci
• Deniz Coskun
• Derek
• G. Alicia Porras
• Guillermo Diaz
• Heather Flannery
• Jake
• Jayakar Joseph Johnson
• Jessica Rampen
• Jim Mason
• johnwalker
• jonathan holt
• Kaliya Identity Woman
• Kamlesh Nagware
• kent
• Mike McCoy
• Neil Luo
• Pankaj Mathur
• Pete Harris
• Tom Farrand (IBM)
• tomdanner
• tommy yama
• Tony Rose
• u.me @ nova medical school
• Vipin Rathi
• Wendy Charles
• Will Abramson
• 17195026817

Introductions

• If you’re new to the group, please…

  • Introduce yourself

  • Tell us where you're geographically located

  • Share with us your interests in healthcare in general, and blockchain technologies in specific

  • Consider posting your contact information in our HC-SIG Membership Directory
  • Questions? Review our HC-SIG FAQ for answers

Community Announcements

• Student application is open for this year's Hyperledger Mentorship Program

  • Additional details here

  • We would love to receive lots of applications from our own academic members and hopefully their students get selected to work on some of these projects this year

  • Application deadline: APR 24 (2020.04.24)
    
    

• Do you have any announcements that you'd like to share with the HC-SIG community?

  • Feel free to make an announcement here, on our Rocket.Chat channel, or via our email listserv

HC-SIG Subgroup Updates

• Patient/Member Subgroup (Deniz Coskun, Lead)

• Payer Subgroup (Raveesh Dewan, Lead)

• Healthcare Interoperability Subgroup (Steven Elliott, Lead)

HC-SIG Ad Hoc Team Updates

Wiki Redesign Team (Rich Bloch, Lead)

Special Topic: Conquering the COVID-19 Virus Pandemic

Image Added

How can blockchain technologies have a positive impact on the identification, prevention, and management of this pandemic?

• How might innovative blockchain technologies--including DLTs, SSI, and cryptocurrencies/tokens--solutions help to:
  • Slow the progression of this deadly virus
  • Manage life-saving logistics networks and medical supply chains with improved throughput and efficiencies
  • Serve as a means for more timely and more accurate healthcare communications model across communities, states, provinces, and countries

Special Guest Speakers

• Brajesh Awasthi, Founder and CEO of Symblock
  • A brief introduction to Symblock's solution, and how their platform might be useful in solving some of the issues we face with the continuing spread of the COVID-19 virus
    • Brajesh and his team will be presenting more formally at an upcoming HC-SIG General Meeting, and we thank him for offering to help drive today's very timely and important discussion around the COVID-19 virus pandemic
      
      
• John Walker, Principal at SemanticClarity
  • A short presentation on
    • How a solution might serve to coordinate COVID-19 emergency services, allowing providers to post and people to locate resources, and to schedule a time to pick up or have delivered those resources
    • How to utilize a combination of Aries/Indy services for safe intermediate identification of both providers and consumers and use DLT (e.g,. Sawtooth or Fabric) to record geo and usage transactions for analysis
  • Presentation (PDF) available here
    
    

• Anesu Machoko, CEO & Co-Founder of MetaDigitaI

  • A description of the work that Anesu and his team are doing with self-sovereign identity (SSI) in the healthcare industry, and how their solutions might be used to help manage secure exchanges between patient, provider, and pharmacy during and after this COVID-19 virus pandemic
    • Anesu and his team will be presenting more formally at an upcoming HC-SIG General Meeting, and we thank him for offering to help drive today's very timely and important discussion around the COVID-19 virus pandemic
      
      
• Jayakar Johnson Joseph, Principal of Johnsons Medicom (P) Ltd.
  • A brief update on the topic of the "Global Corona Virus Mutation Control Program on Healthnet Id System with Hyperledger Project"
  • Presentation (PDF) available here

• Vipin Rathi, Assistant Professor at the University of Delhi, and Chair of the Hyperledger Telecom SIG, provides his teams' view from outside the healthcare industry on how our community might best develop solutions to combat the COVID-19 virus pandemic

Status and Funding/Support from Around the World

• Canada
• Canadian 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Rapid Research Funding Opportunity. On March 19, 2020, the honourable Patty Hajdu, Canada’s Minister of Health, announced an additional investment of $25M to the Canadian 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Rapid Research competition. This additional funding is a portion of the $275M dedicated for COVID-19 research as announced by the Prime Minister on March 11, 2020. With this investment, CIHR will be able to fund an additional 49 grants, which brings the total number of grants funded to 96 and a total investment of $52.6M
•  Ireland
  • Health Research Board (HRB). The research priorities of this call are aligned with the WHO R&D Blueprint and informed by the Global Infectious Disease Collaboration for International Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R)

Status and Funding/Support in the US

• Brigham and Women's Emergency Department
  • On MAR 17, Open Call for Solutions issued. UPDATE: this call is now closed. Brigham and Women's Emergency Department is calling for text based platforms to help healthcare professionals (clinicians, receptionists, technicians, and others) monitor symptoms of coronavirus, report burnout, and access helpful resources. The tool would be used by clinicians, receptionists, technicians and others in the healthcare field. If selected, it would roll out in the Brigham Emergency Department first.
    
    
• National Cancer Institute (NCI) Funding Opportunities for Small Businesses (SBIRs/STTRs). Updated MAR 27. The NCI participates in the NIH-issued SBIR and an STTR Omnibus grant solicitation for small businesses, which allow small businesses to submit researcher-initiated projects that are within NIH’s mission. 
   
• National Institute of Health (NIH) Funding Opportunities. Urgent Competitive Revision to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Urgent Supplement - Clinical Trial Optional) recently updated through "Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Availability of Administrative Supplements and Revision Supplements on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)." Additional details available here.
  
  
• Additional COVID-19 Funding Opportunities
  • UC Davis Office of Research provides a regularly updated set of links tied to COVID-19 funding opportunities across numerous US agencies, including Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Gates Foundation.

Old Business

• Healthcare Funding Opportunities
  

  • Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

    • Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
    • Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)
  • National Institute of Health (NIH)
    • SBIRs/STTRs and grant funding
  • UNICEF Innovation Fund
    • Designed for small business start-ups
    • UNICEF Blockchain Programme details

• 2020 HC-SIG Membership Survey Results
  • Majority of respondents are in healthcare, and work in software development/engineering
  • Participating in the HC-SIG to learn more about blockchain technologies in healthcare, and also business networking
  • Most familiar with blockchain technologies for 3-5 years
  • Half of respondents from North America, followed by Europe and then Asia
  • Primarily interested in Fabric, Indy, and Sawtooth development
  • Interoperability, clinical data exchange, and the management of personally identifiable information (PII) the primary focus of interest
    • Through the implementation of self-sovereign identity (SSI) and smart contracts
  • Focus of effort on the provider, patient, and then government/regulatory spaces
  • About 3/4 of respondents would be okay if future presentation topics were not directly related to Hyperledger (more interested in the broader use of any blockchain technologies in healthcare)
    • Such topics to include:
      • Smart contract tech, e.g., DAML and PACT, and public blockchain technologies
      • BurstIQ, Remedichain, IBM Blockchain platforms
  • Miscellaneous comments:
    • Congratulations and keep going with this efforts!!!
    • This is a great community and I have learned more since I found this group than my own efforts surfing into the www, congratulations and hope some day I’ll have the same knowledge and experience like the rest of the participants here to contribute more at the discussions
    • Great job... Thanks!
    • Great work!
    • Richard Bloch is the best facilitator that you could ever hope to have. He is absolutely outstanding in his efforts to include people in discussions and managing discussions in the best interests of time and respect. He's amazing.
      • Rich responds: "aw... shucks!"

• Discussion topic: COVID-19
  • How can blockchain technologies have a positive impact on the identification and prevention of this pandemic?
    • Recent US government spending package (proposed as of this writing) for COVID-19 to include the following:
      • $500 million for an emergency telehealth waiver. The bill would waive certain Medicare restrictions for telehealth, including that a Medicare beneficiary can use telehealth services even if they aren’t in a rural community. “This provision would also allow beneficiaries to receive care from physicians and other practitioners in their homes,” a summary of the package said
      • $2.2 billion to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help state and local health agencies. The funding would include a provision to reimburse state or local costs for corona virus response and preparedness activities from Jan. 20 to the end of this supplemental
      • Nearly $1 billion to buy drugs and medical supplies. This procurement will include $500 million for drugs, masks and personal protective equipment that can be distributed to state and local health agencies in areas that are in shortage. It also includes funding for increasing the supply of biocontainment beds, which are secured areas used for patients with highly contagious diseases
      • More than $3 billion to support the research and development of vaccines, diagnostics and other treatments for the corona virus. Any vaccine or diagnostic developed via taxpayer funds must also “be available for purchase by the federal government at a fair and reasonable price,” the summary said. The bill also enables the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure any vaccine or diagnostic can be affordable in the commercial market, but doesn’t elaborate on how.

New Business

Open Discussions (Rich)

Discussion: your thoughts on changes you'd like to see with the HC-SIG?

Next Meeting

• Scheduled for Friday, 2020.04.17, 0700 Pacific Time

• Discussion: topics to add to agenda?