The dream of any healthcare CIO is to have ubiquitous electronic health record system. But as we have seen in my previous blogs, the same is not easy on the grounds of technical, commercial, operational, governance and compliance. But blockchain can be a solution to these concerns only if government authority takes responsibility to run a blockchain system.
Some of you must be wondering what this new thing blockchain is. Though there is not one concrete definition of blockchain, it can simply be put as a type of distributed ledger, comprised of unchangeable and digitally recorded pieces of data in packages where each packet is chained to the next one using cryptographic signature. This chain of packages can be treated as ledger and can be accessed by anyone with appropriate permission.
How then can this be a game-changer for healthcare! The answer is - It can directly help in managing population health, medical records, and patient-generated data. The sheer volume of this data being generated in these healthcare applications with security requirements makes it difficult for health SMEs to implement any system commercially. Since blockchain is an open and transparent system with tremendous security much better than RSA, where miners help manage the integrity of the data, it can address this problem easily. However, to avoid vendor lock-ins, such systems should be initiated by government organizations. Once this system is in place, there is no need to have network of healthcare information exchanges. In blockchain there is no concept of central repository or authority authenticating the transactions. Anybody can validate the integrity of the transactions and the data without actually knowing the data. That's the unique feature as well as beauty of blockchain technology.
The applications of blockchain are not limited to just health systems. It can be extended to industries where health data reaches in some or the other form such as insurance organizations. We are just seeing the possibilities coming to reality with Philips blockchain-in-healthcare lab. Country like Estonia moving to blockchain to take 100% medical health records online, i am sure that the future is bright for blockchain in healthcare.
