Blink Science joins the Good Health Pass Collaborative
The open, inclusive, cross-sector initiative will create a blueprint for interoperable digital health pass systems that will help restore international travel and restart the global economy.
Blink Science, Inc., a company dedicated to revolutionizing global point-of-care medical diagnostics, has partnered with the Good Health Pass Collaborative.
Launched by ID2020 in February, the Good Health Pass Collaborative is an open, inclusive, cross-sector initiative which aims to create a blueprint for interoperable digital health pass systems as a means to safely restore international travel, resume public life, and restart the global economy.
In joining the Collaborative, Blink Science, a unique and innovative medical diagnostics and technology startup, joins global giants including Clear, the Commons Project Foundation, COVID-19 Credentials Initiative (CCI), IBM, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Linux Foundation Public Health, Mastercard, and Salesforce to jointly articulate principles and develop technical standards for digital health pass systems that are privacy-protecting, user-controlled, equitable, and interoperable.
In February, the Collaborative released its first white paper, entitled Good Health Pass: A Safe Path to Global Reopening, which outlines these principles. Over the next three months, the Collaborative plans to release at least two additional publications; the Good Health Pass Interoperability Blueprint, and the Good Health Pass Governance Framework Recommendations.
Digital health passports will allow users to retrieve their health credentials online, in print, or on a mobile device by linking an individual’s identity to a test result or vaccination certificate to enable real-time, fraud resistant digital verification. blinkPASSPORT™ and blinkVERIFY™ are a passport system that registers vaccinations, as well as testing information, within a HIPAA compliant app, and provide verification when an individual has been vaccinated and/or tested.
“Most of the vaccination passports available to-date are ignoring one very key element– the need for fast and reliable testing. Until vaccines are able to provide reliable resistance to the many COVID variants and are universally available for every person in the world, widespread testing will remain essential to safely return to public life,” expressed Blink Science President Eric Doherty.
Blink Science is in the process of pursuing FDA Emergency Use Authorization for blinkTEST™, a handheld point-of-care (POC) diagnostic testing platform that allows for rapid, sensitive detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 from a small saliva sample.
To be successful in bringing the pandemic to an end, this global effort requires that solutions be designed to be interoperable with one another and across institutional and geographic borders.
“Fragmentation is a risk we simply cannot ignore. To be valuable to users, credentials need to be accepted at check-in, upon arrival by border control agencies, and more,” said Dakota Gruener, ID2020 Executive Director. “We can get there – even with multiple systems – as long as solutions adhere to open standards and participate in a common governance framework. But without these, fragmentation is inevitable, and travelers – and the economy – will continue to suffer needlessly as a result. We are delighted to welcome Blink Science to the Collaborative and look forward to working with them in the coming months. ”