Basking in the glory of the stupendous success of their ICO SHIVOM and firmly catapulting their empowering project Shivom "THE FUTURE IS YOUR GENOME! OWN IT" powered by blockchain technology, we had the privilege of talking to Natalie Pankova, the CSO at company, previously. And we now got a chance to catch up with COO and Co-Founder Gourish Singla himself.
Q: SHIVOM is largely described as successful ICO creating genomics hub worldwide. It will be great if you can share with us in the acquisition of potential customer and support base.
We are currently working on initiating some pilot projects with institutions where we will get access to unique patient populations whose data will be uploaded to the platform. These are expected to be initiated this summer as the processes for them are currently being built out. It is important to recognize that healthcare projects are extremely complex, with multiple stakeholder involvement, and no room for error. As such we are being very diligent in ensuring that we set up the correct processes for carrying out the work. Additionally, we plan to release an early version of the platform in the coming months where users will be able to upload their sequencing data if they have been previously sequenced with another provider and try out the platform.
Q: SHIVOM ICO Token OMX recently achieved 350M market cap - any specific strategy that the company followed to achieve this milestone?
In terms of strategy, the team continues to focus on executing on roadmap milestones, building a world-class team & platform, collaborating with the best public and private sector organizations, and developing a sustainable business that will not only be profitable but also good for society.
Q: Amidst the launch of the company, ICO and forming innovation council, what has been the biggest challenge for SHIVOM? Why?
SHIVOM experiences the usual challenges associated with leading early stage tech startups to include recruiting and employing top talent in the space. Additionally, SHIVOM is focused on better educating the global economy on the many personal and societal benefits of genomics sequencing. We want to drive the narrative on genomics and precision medicine.
Q: If you can tell our readers more about SHIVOM's innovation council.
SHIVOM’s Innovation Council functions as the company’s internal think tank; and is focused on anticipated future needs and prioritizing technical requirements and solutions. The Council is comprised of some of the world’s top executives and leaders in their respective areas of focus ranging from bioinformatics, cybsersecurity, healthcare R&D, and government to scaling early stage tech companies. The Council is currently exploring and identifying potential novel solutions for better ensuring all individuals in the SHIVOM ecosystem are able to participate as stakeholders in the global healthcare economy.
Q: SHIVOM has signed MOU with Andhra Pradesh, what is your projection on healthcare development using blockchain for the state? Any plans to replicate this within India or worldwide any time soon.
We are working on a pilot study in Andhra Pradesh with the local community and institutions. This pilot will be important in supporting any further work down the road both nationally and internationally, and thus we are very diligent in ensuring that we set up the right processes. This will take time and cannot be rushed, to ensure that the data gathered here yields maximum benefit. Once we have measured the outcomes and has early success; we will of course aim to replicate the work in other regions.
Q: How will you ensure the privacy and data protection of such a sensitive DNA data pool?
We are working with a partner Spherity, who are developing advanced encryption protocols to ensure that our data is stored in the most safe and secure way possible. Privacy of the data is of utmost concern to us, as are the local data protection regulations. We are working diligently from the legal side to ensure that all data protection regulations (inc GDPR) are followed.
Q: SHIVOM recently partnered with SingularityNET, an AI oriented firm. What benefits can the customers expect from this new alliance?
With the new SingularityNET + SHIVOM partnership, we anticipate that SHIVOM stakeholders will gain access to SingularityNET’s AI marketplace and biomedical analytic tools in the future; SingularityNET researchers and AI agents will similarly gain access to SHIVOM’s robust healthcare services platform and genomics datahub.
Q: Please share with us differentiator attributes of SHIVOM, amongst other healthcare enabler using blockchain and the success mantra.
Shivom is specifically working on secure storage and sharing of genomic information using the blockchain. This is inherently different from many other healthcare companies, and very few companies are using the blockchain for genomics. Compared to some of its competitors in the space Shivom’s main differentiators are the development of advanced encryption algorithms for the highest level of security, privacy and data sharing in accordance to regulation, the development of an open web marketplace that enables collaboration and connectivity of many healthcare services and products, and the global reach of the Shivom platform to the developing and rural communities.
Conclusion:
We wish you all the success and great benchmarks ahead with SHIVOM and an evident transformational difference in healthcare ecosystem with genomics data and blockchain enabler at the earliest.