Daniel Toshio Harrell

Daniel Toshio Harrell, PhD is a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Research Institute exploring uses of blockchain technology and self-sovereign identity platforms for health care toward creating a more patient-centric healthcare record and improving data liquidity in a federated healthcare environment. He aims to design and manage healthcare and medical data-acquisition software solutions to help patients better interact with their healthcare providers and systems. 

Previously at University of Texas at Austin's Dell Medical School (UT-DMS), as a Research Associate, Daniel coordinated the implementation of self-sovereign identity platforms for managing patient identifying and medical information using blockchain technology with verifiable credentials. As an enterprise project coordinator, he managed software implementations for clinical operation including technical implementation of WHO’s Go.Data platform for COVID-19 case and contract tracking of students and staff on University of Texas at Austin campus. 

Daniel has conducted research projects related to the design and implementation of patient-centric electronic health information systems and civil registration and vital statistics tools for American, Middle Eastern, Sub-Saharan African, and Southeast Asian clinical settings. These projects include subject matters relating to maternal and child health, vaccination tracking, mild-cognitive impairment and dementia, and HIV patient and antiretroviral drug management. Daniel earned his bachelor degree in electrical and computer engineering from University of Texas at Austin and his PhD in medical science (cardiac electrophysiology and inherited arrhythmias) from Nagasaki University-Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences(Japan).