Emergency response to natural disaster victim identification: Blockchain to the rescue
subject: Blockchain; Challenge; Natural disaster; Post-mortem data; Victim identification
description: Rapid, coordinated action by various stakeholders is required to respond effectively to a natural disaster. Suffice it; such efficiency has been missing in many previous rescue attempts. Is blockchain capable of making this happen? The Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) process is a sophisticated operation in which post-mortem (PM) identifying data, including fingerprints, DNA, and dental records, are acquired and matched with antemortem (AM) data from the missing people list. Although there are solutions to human identification, they must provide the tools required to achieve human identification promptly. Blockchain technology is one of the technologies that has gained much attention recently and is undergoing heavy media operations. It creates trustworthy, secure, and comprehensive ecosystems by disseminating siloed AM and PM data across systems, preventing breaches, redundancies, inconsistencies, and errors. Using real-world scenarios, the authors present several good use cases in this chapter to gain a holistic understanding of the challenges and how blockchain technology addresses such challenges and facilitates multi-jurisdictional data information sharing in conjunction with the upcoming distribution of patients electronic medical and dental records. 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
creator: Kumar, Sachil; Sebastian, Athul; Nandakumar, Brunda
source: The Role of Blockchain in Disaster Management;pp.69-85
publisher: Elsevier
date: 01-01-2025
rights: Restricted Access; Hardcopy may be available in the library
relation: ISBN: 978-044313472-2; 978-044313473-9;
language: English
type: Book chapter
coverage: Kumar S., Amity Institute of Forensic Sciences, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India; Sebastian A., CHRIST University, Karnataka, Bengaluru, India; Nandakumar B., CHRIST University, Karnataka, Bengaluru, India