Indian State is embracing blockchain technology for healthcare research & Financial Inclusion projects on pilot basis with Government of AP in conjunction with Shivom

Shivom – the blockchain-enabled healthcare platform that aims to be the largest unique genomic and healthcare research hub on the planet – has announced a project with the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in healthcare, especially in the area of genetic science and FinTech for Financial inclusion projects today.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh, the eighth-largest state in India with 60 million people, plans to revamp its health-care system to provide more personalized care following a major pilot of the Shivom platform.

“Our partnership with Shivom explores the possibilities of providing an efficient way of diagnostic services to patients of Andhra Pradesh by maintaining the privacy of the individual data through blockchain technologies,” said J A Chowdary, IT Advisor to Chief Minister, Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Shivom will also establish a development center at Fintech Valley Vizag and also work closely with the Government of Andhra Pradesh’s International Institute of Digital Technologies (IIDT) at Tirupati on cybersecurity and analytics.

“Whilst diversity is all around us in the physical world, it is still lacking in the existing genomic data available to researchers around the world. This results in exclusion, as minority and under-represented groups miss out on the benefits from advances in predictive and personalised medicine because abnormal genomic variations that exist in their ethnic or geographical location will not be present in the data that researchers are working with,” says Dr. Axel Schumacher, Co-Founder, and CEO, Shivom.

“At Shivom, we are passionate about changing the healthcare status quo and driving a fundamental evolution that results in a system of universal access to the best and most effective predictive medicine. This agreement with the state of Andhra Pradesh is hugely significant for Shivom as it is the first step towards a new, accessible world of healthcare,” continued Dr. Schumacher.

This significant partnership demonstrates a monumental shift in focussing just on genomic data for research and instead using the predictive power of the genetic data to empower the Andhra Pradesh healthcare system to shift from reactive to more preventative.

“We view the future as consumers owning their own health data,” said Gourish Singla, Co-Founder and COO of Shivom. ”Most of us are oblivious of the implications of giving away personal information, and the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica issue has demonstrated just how important it is to be aware of who owns your data and what they are doing with it. This is why we are proud to be the first DNA sequencing platform to put the ownership of an individual’s DNA in their hands,” concluded Gourish Singla, Co-Founder and COO of Shivom.