Blockchain technology will not only revolutionize medical records. It will also create a patient-centric healthcare industry, dramatically different from what exists today. As discussed in previous posts, blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger of transactions. It records data in a way that prevents hacking and altering of data. This is achieved by duplicating transactions and dispersing them to “nodes” across the network.
“Blockchain possess the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry by placing the patient at the center of the ecosystem. It amplifies interoperability, privacy, and security of health data,” write Vic Gupta and Harish Nanda, the Executive Vice President of Digital & AI and Chief Architect of Coforge, in ET Healthworld.com. “The technology is set to equip [the] healthcare industry with a more advanced Health Information Exchange (HIE) model. This could genuinely transform electronic medical records, making them significantly more secure, efficient, and disintermediated.”
However, the healthcare industry has been slow to adopt blockchain due to the sensitivity of the data handled.
Healthcare Blockchain Relies on Hybrid Technology Stacks
Because the healthcare industry needs to protect highly sensitive patient data, its blockchain technology must rely on a hybrid technology stack. This is necessary rather than a system in which data is delivered across blockchain nodes. This is according to Stuart Hanson, CEO of Avaneer Health.
“Instead, this technology can be used to help index the complex industry sources of data across a network. It makes this data more fluid and, therefore, valuable,” he told Healthcare IT News. “In other words, we need to figure out a delicate balance between blockchain and other technology components within the stack. This is in order to preserve the key value added from blockchain while making the entire system robust and optimized for the healthcare use cases.”
How Multiple-Signature Contracts Will Provide Solutions to the Healthcare Blockchain
According to Xudong Huang, a researcher at Harvard Medical School who was interviewed by Managed Healthcare Executive, healthcare blockchain is valuable to patients. This is because it simultaneously provides them with data security and data ownership. This is in comparison to traditional data management and security systems. He discussed this in a 2019 paper.
Blockchain-based systems would require patients to authorize retrieval of their data through what Huang and coauthors call multiple-signature, or “multisig,” contracts in healthcare blockchains. Using these signatures, both patient and healthcare provider use separate private keys to access the patient’s medical record in the network. While this means the provider can’t access the patient’s data without permission, it also means that only providers—not patients—can change the patient’s data.
While siloing data in such a way can create obstacles for big data analytics, researchers and healthcare companies often rely on these analytics to create solutions in the healthcare industry. However, Huang thinks it may actually help.
“An easy solution for this is any de-identified patients’ data can be released to a public database for easy access,” he told the publication. In other words, blockchain would allow wider, simplified access of data among vetted parties on the blockchain.
As the blockchain brings major solutions to healthcare, the industry will need to learn to adjust to a new, patient-centric network. Other industries will find themselves in a similar position. Has your organization prepared to adopt blockchain technology?
Designing Blockchain Solutions
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Resources
Gupta, Vic and Nanda, Harish. (24 March 2022). Blockchain Disrupting the Healthcare Ecosystem. ET HealthWorld.com.
Siwicki, Bill. (3 March 2022). Healthcare blockchain leader talks challenges and trends in DLT. Healthcare IT News.
Kaltwasser, Jared. (8 February 2022). Is Healthcare Ready For Blockchain? Managed Healthcare Executive.
From patient-centric hospital networks to higher quality medicine, blockchain technology is revolutionizing healthcare in a number of ways. As discussed in previous posts, blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger of transactions that records data in a way that prevents hacking and altering of data by duplicating transactions and dispersing them to “nodes” across the network.
According to Jose Morey, Chief Executive Officer of Ad Astra Media and Chief Health Officer of Ever Medical Technologies, the secure and transparent nature of blockchain means that it has a number of potential applications in the medical industry. Writing in Forbes, he notes a number of ways that blockchain is already transforming healthcare.
Blockchain Applications That Could Revolutionize Healthcare
Blockchain will allow the medical industry to share and access patient data securely: The technology will “facilitate finely customizable openness while upholding only the best security standards for true interoperability,” Morey writes. This will allow health information systems to “work together within and across organizational boundaries” to enhance healthcare delivery. Chronicled is one company that is already using blockchain to secure patient data.
Blockchain will improve contract negotiations: In the healthcare industry, contract negotiations often get quite complex, which can take up a lot of time as a result. Blockchain, however, is already providing a solution. A company called Curisium uses the technology “to create a platform for rebate negotiation and contract management,” Morey writes. He adds that the platform streamlines traditional processes by allowing “providers and payers to take part in innovative contracting arrangements.”
Blockchain can foster innovation and connect large hospital networks: For example, a company called Ever integrated a “blockchain, data-driven, patient-centric network” within Thailand’s medical system. The technology connected more than 170 hospitals and 5 million patients. “It enables best-in-class security for all connected data and parties while maintaining close and easy communication with trusted parties— all on a flexible, future-proof, scalable blockchain foundation,” Morey says.
Blockchain allows organizations to create both secure and transparent networks: With blockchain technology, hospitals can quickly and easily share patient data in a way that is fully secure. “Protected by state-of-the-art security solutions, attackers would require vast computational capabilities to even attempt targeting a blockchain-powered network, severely limiting the frequency, possibility and effectiveness of attacks,” states Morey. One company utilizing blockchain in this way is Patientory, which develops “patient-centric applications” that provide up-to-date patient histories and data, pandemic tracking and reporting, and secure communication with verified healthcare personnel.
Furthermore, blockchain has the potential to greatly improve the quality of medicine. According to Pharmacy Times, OCEASOFT, a company that makes atmospheric monitors for supply chains, and Chronicled, an Internet of Things- and blockchain-focused supply chain technology business, are working together to implement blockchain for atmospheric monitoring in the drug supply chain. These monitors glean information such as CO2, temperature, and humidity, which is stored in a decentralized ledger. Buyers and sellers can use this secure ledger to monitor the quality of drugs across global supply chains. Such a system would also help prevent fraud and the purchase of expired drugs.
These blockchain transformations are only the beginning. It’s only a matter of time before more industries are harnessing this revolutionary technology.
Preparing Your Industry for Blockchain Technology
In addition to the healthcare industry, many fields can benefit from distributed ledger technology. Check out Enterprise Blockchain for Healthcare, IoT, Energy, and Supply Chain to learn about highly anticipated use cases.
Developed by leading experts in blockchain technology, this five-course program is ideal for managers, professional engineers, and business leaders.
Contact an IEEE Content Specialist to learn more about how this program can benefit your organization.
Interested in getting access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!
Resources
Kenney, Skylar. (28 October 2021). The Case for Leveraging Blockchain to Improve the Global Health Supply Chain. Pharmacy Times.
Morey, Jose. (25 October 2021). The Future Of Blockchain In Healthcare. Forbes.
With news that vaccines to control the spread of COVID-19 have been developed and approved, the next step will be the enormous undertaking of administering them to the public. For the current vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech to be long-lasting and effective, individuals must take two separate doses three to four weeks apart (the length of time depends on which vaccine is used)—bringing the total to about 15 billion doses.
“[It’s] a level of undertaking that is just beyond anything we have done as a society,” Mark Treshock, Blockchain Solutions Leader for Healthcare and Life Sciences at IBM, told mobihealthnews. “To confound that, it’s the fact that these vaccines are all different, and they are not interchangeable. So even though they treat or vaccinate against the same virus, they are different vaccines.”
Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology, a decentralized digital ledger of transactions that records data in a way that prevents hacking and data altercation, may be able to help medical professionals, manufacturers, distributors, and patients stay on top of these vaccines in a secure manner. Not only can blockchain be used to track vaccines over long distances in order to ensure they are temperature controlled and safe for use upon delivery, it can also help medical professionals and patients maintain vaccination records. This could help patients as they may need to prove to authorities that they are safe to travel or to verify that they can be in an indoor office environment. Blockchain can also be used to solidify immunization records about a patient. This process can ensure a patient is receiving the correct pair of COVID-19 vaccines, which they may also need for verification purposes.
“The two-dose challenge,” said Treshock. “Where you need two doses, they need to be within a set time window, let’s say 30 days, and they need to be from the same manufacturer. So, if your first dose is Pfizer, your second dose has to be Pfizer as well. They aren’t interchangeable. When we start administering this vaccine at scale, it is going to be very challenging coordinating that.”
How Can Blockchain Help Manage Health Data?
Blockchain has the power to transform the healthcare industry. Whereas much of our online data is currently in the hands of private companies like Facebook, blockchain can give individuals control over their personal data. Data collected on the Internet is a kind of virtual representation of every user. However, many individuals have no real ownership over their data, which can create problems when it comes to security, access, monetization, privacy, and advocacy.
“That identity is now yours, but the data that comes from its interaction in the world is owned by someone else,” Carlos Moreira, CEO of WISeKey, told Harvard Business Review.
Not only is blockchain decentralized, it’s also immutable. This means transactions cannot be changed or undone without approval. Blockchain keeps digital identity safe in a “digital wallet” that gathers and protects all the data, which can include health information. For example, this “digital wallet” could house personal health records or health information captured by a smart watch, and then give an individual control over how that data is used.
Some organizations are already using blockchain to successfully manage health data, including:
- Canada’s University Health Network (UHN) created a patient control-and-consent platform designed to make clinical research easier. Created in partnership with IBM, UHN uses blockchain to amass and secure patient data throughout the network. It receives and records consent from each patient in order for their data to be shared with researchers.
- MiPasa, an initiative founded by the start-up Hacera, is a platform designed to capture pandemic data on an international scale from the Center for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, licensed private facilities, local public health agencies, and individuals—without identifying them. The platform aggregates data through Hacera’s Unbounded Network, a decentralized blockchain supported by Hyperledger Fabric. It then uses IBM’s blockchain and cloud platforms to stream the data.
- The blockchain startup Shivom is developing an international project that gathers and shares virus host data. The platform uses blockchain to actively maintain patient consent, and to securely and privately share genomic information and data analysis with third parties without offering access to patients’ raw genomic data.
Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize health care, but requires a transformation in the rules for defining and assigning data ownership.
Understand Enterprise Blockchain for Your Industry
What other industries can benefit from blockchain technology? Get Enterprise Blockchain for Healthcare, IoT, Energy, and Supply Chain, a five-course program from IEEE, to find out. Developed by leading experts in blockchain technology, this advanced program provides business use cases across key industries and sectors. It’s ideal for managers, professional engineers, and business leaders.
Contact an IEEE Content Specialist to learn more about how this program can benefit your organization.
Interested in getting access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!
Resources
Goodnough, Abby. Zimmer, Carl. Robbins, Rebecca. Mandavilli, Apoorva. Thomas, Denise Grady Katie. Parker-Pope, Tara. Weiland, Noah. Singer, Natasha, Leonhardt., David, Rabin. Roni Caryn. Bosman, Julie. Abelson, Reed. Pérez-Peña, Richard. (14 December 2020). Answers to Your Questions About the New Covid Vaccines in the U.S. New York Times.
Lovett, Laura. (25 November 2020). Blockchain could be the key to vaccine distribution, says IBM. mobihealthnews.
Tapscott, Don and Tapscott, Alex. (12 June 2020). What Blockchain Could Mean for Your Health Data. Harvard Business Review.