Source: Pixabay/geralt

News • Cryptography

How can blockchain accelerate innovation in healthcare?

Blockchain technology can be a potential industry disrupter in healthcare. It is a proven game changer in the business arena.

So, what is blockchain technology? In a nutshell, the concept is based on a list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured through a process of constructing and analyzing protocols to prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages (also known as cryptography). Each block has a timestamp and transaction data, and Harvard Business Review defines blockchain as “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way.” Once recorded, the beauty of blockchain technology is that the data is inalterable without the modification of all subsequent blocks, which requires the majority of the network to work together.

How are blockchains relevant to healthcare?

Photo
Source: Source/ESB Professional

This decentralization and encryption in distributing, sharing and storing information is relevant to protecting patients’ health data. As physicians and providers, we may finally be liberated from retrieving data in a siloed manner, and we can finally access secure data in an econometric, integrated way to optimize quality of care for our patients. Managing and securing healthcare data is just one example of how blockchain adoption will be an industry disrupter. Better data sharing between healthcare providers will mean a higher probability of accurate diagnoses, more effective treatments, and the overall increased ability of healthcare organizations to deliver cost-effective care.

Blockchain technology can allow various stakeholders in the healthcare value-chain to share access to their networks without compromising data security and integrity, allowing them to track data sources as well as any changes made throughout the process. Blockchain has the potential to accelerate innovation in risk-based, coordinated care models, like alternative payment models, offering the capacity of a distributed ledger technology for ensuring data integrity while preserving security for patients and facilitating efficient collaboration between local, regional, and global communities in healthcare.

abstract technology concept human body digital health care ; hud interface of...
Source: Shutterstock/Tex vector

A “source of truth” for health data

This innovation can integrate complex, chronic, and team-based care along with payment and delivery model reforms. For example, blockchain technology can be the “source of truth” for medication prescriptions. Today, different entities prescribe and fill a patient’s medications (e.g. opioids), including emergency departments, physician offices and pharmacies. Each entity has its own source of truth. As a result, physicians and providers are frequently oblivious to each other’s prescriptions, because they are unable to view them with different EHRs. With blockchain being the source of truth, hospitals, physicians, and pharmacies would see all events surrounding the patient’s medications, ensuring accuracy, fidelity, and quality assurance, thus improving the overall patient experience and quality of care.


Source: HIMSS/Dr. Amy Nguyen Howell 

06.01.2018

Read all latest stories

Related articles

Photo

News • Standardisation in healthcare

Study surveys landscape of FHIR apps

A new study is among the first to survey the current landscape of FHIR apps, providing a snapshot of how the standard is used to enable the flow of health information.

Photo

Article • Data protection

A shared EU data space for health?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in 2018, has reinforced the European Union’s (EU) reputation of being comparatively strict regarding the protection of personal…

Photo

Article • Cyberattack collaterals

War in Ukraine also threatens German hospital IT security

Russia's war against Ukraine is also playing out in cyberspace. In the process, clinics in Germany could also be caught in the digital crossfire, IT experts warn.

Related products

Subscribe to Newsletter