COVID-19 stretched the Strategic National Stockpile thin. Now, lawmakers are proposing a blockchain network to better track medical supplies

Newly-filed legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives would, if passed and signed into law, create a nationwide blockchain network to track critical medical supplies in both state stockpiles as well as the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).

HR 6607, or the Strategic National Stockpile Enhancement and Transparency Act, includes Reps. Darren Soto and Sheila Jackson-Lee as cosponsors. According to the published text, the bill seeks to create a so-called "National Emergency Biodefense Network." This network would include stakeholders from both state and federal offices with the goal of sharing information about the status of each stockpile in terms of the supplies and goods it holds.

As the bill makes clear, "the Network shall be developed and implemented using a private blockchain." What's more, the legislation provides grants for states to create entities that would "serve as a statewide repository of the supplies" and "provide for the tracking of the inventory and movement of such supplies using a private blockchain." At the federal level, the effort would be coordinated under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The bill sets aside $25 million for each of the fiscal years 2021 and 2022 to implement the law. According to Lynch's press statement on the matter, the money will be used to "create state repositories and to establish state-based blockchain nodes for tracking purposes."

Simply put, the bill envisions the following: a nationwide network of blockchain nodes, each one operated by some state office or entity, through which information about medical supplies can be shared in real-time. 

The rationale for creating such an information-sharing network would seem to lie in the widely reported fact that response to the coronavirus pandemic has been hobbled, in part, by a lack of preparedness to provide critical supplies to states from the SNS. One former director of the SNS told Politico last month that the SNS as designed was not designed to handle a truly nationwide pandemic response.

In a statement published alongside the bill's filing, Lynch took aim at the current state of the SNS and its failure amid the pandemic response.

"Throughout the COVID-19 crisis we have watched health care providers and centers pushed to their breaking points as they risk their lives to provide vital care to their communities," Lynch was quoted as saying. "Many of these providers have been forced to work without sufficient equipment and supplies. Unfortunately, when states have sought help from the SNS, their requests have gone unanswered."

He went on to say:

"We depend on the SNS to supplement state reserves of biodefense supplies and equipment and H.R. 6607 will ensure the readiness of the SNS to respond to future crises. By adopting a private blockchain system we can verify the status of our biodefense capacity in real-time which will allow us to be better prepared."

In a broader sense, the bill's filing suggests that blockchain tech is being viewed, as least by some, as a possible solution to some of the unique problems being presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. As this editor reported over the weekend, a Senate memo from late April posited that the technology could be utilized as a means for facilitating voting in Congress. While both proposals are likely to face headwinds, it's still notable that the nascent technology is forming part of the response conversation at all.