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Medicalchain is a blockchain-based healthcare platform that securely stores health records for organisations such as doctors, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacists and health insurers.
Blockchain's Transformative Impact On Healthcare: Feature Interview With Author Mark van Rijmenam
The Internet. It all began as a grand vision for a democratized global network.
Today, it is increasingly controlled by a powerful group of centralized enterprises exerting enormous influence over the digital ecosystem.
Enter Blockchain, a catalyst for upending this prevailing model by providing a secure and efficient means for facilitating digital information in a decentralized manner. It's here where this nascent technology shows promise in addressing a number of issues pertaining to healthcare.
Practical perspectives on blockchain in healthcare
In the book entitled Blockchain: Transforming Your Business and Our World, authors Mark van Rijmenam and Philippa Ryan provide a set of perspectives on this emerging, highly talked about technology and its relevance to industries like healthcare. Replete with practical stories and examples, this book highlights the enormous upside of blockchain innovation in fueling a better world.
Here at Blockchain Healthcare Review, we asked co-author Mark van Rijmenam to provide us with his thoughts around the growing nexus between blockchain and healthcare innovation. A faculty member for the famed Blockchain Research Institute, van Rijmenam is an in-demand speaker, startup strategic advisor and thought leader on AI, Blockchain and Big Data.
What prompted you to co-author this book?
While doing research for my Ph.D., I found that there was a lack of knowledge available on how Blockchain could be used for social good. Most of the information pertaining to Blockchain focused on either Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies or on how the financial services industry could value from distributed ledger technology. This seemed odd to me, especially in light of Goldman Sachs statement in 2015 that "Blockchain can change … well everything". So my co-author Philippa Ryan and I decided to fill in this gap by investigating how Blockchain could be used to transform business while improving our world in a more broader way.
Along those same lines, can you provide us with an example of where this is playing out in the healthcare industry?
Sure. The move toward developing electronic health care records that are personal, persistent, private, protected and portable is just one example. An important part of the health delivery model involves the recording of key indicators around patient progress over time. Given the number of care practitioners often involved, a complete and reliable overview of a patient's record often becomes quite complicated. It's here where Blockchain solutions show promise in ensuring that healthcare records become immutable, verifiable and traceable.
And are there any blockchain enterprise related projects that stand out for you?
Yes, there are indeed a number of startups aiming to disrupt the healthcare system using blockchain. The biggest of these startups all revolve around healthcare records, as solving this issue could significantly change our healthcare system and save billions of dollars. Companies like Medicalchain, Clinico, and Patientory are the ones that appear to be generating the most traction.
What other some areas you are keeping an eye on in terms of blockchain adoption in healthcare?
Provider credentialing is another interesting one to watch. In short, documenting credentials and certificates on the blockchain may offer a key solution for preventing fraud by doctors who are not actually doctors.
Any others?
Patient consent management is still another area where blockchain offers promise. It could deliver a new and more efficient way for relevant stakeholders to check and verify whether or not a patient has given consent to a certain treatment.
How do you believe blockchain can contribute to the identity management element of patient care?
Blockchain will empower patients and give them full control over their own healthcare records, which is non-existent today. We will move to a self-sovereign identity for patients, where the patients themselves determine who has access to what data and see which doctor or organization had access to their personal files.
Your final thoughts in terms of the future of blockchain in helping to deliver quality, cost-effective health care?
Yes, keep an eye on the movement afoot around self-sovereign identity for patients. Allowing truly anonymized patient data that can be used for research will significantly improve healthcare and reduce costs. I believe this is a very important area to watch as it could have major implications for the future of healthcare.
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Managing Editor Michael Scott is a renowned blockchain journalist with a strong passion for the new digital economy. Prior to his career in media, he spent 10+ years serving leadership posts in healthcare, including UC Davis Medical Center institutional review board. Michael has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from The Ohio State University and a Master of Public Administration in Health Services Administration from the University of San Francisco.
Blockchain Innovation
How Blockchain Smart Contracts Can Be Used for Healthcare
Blockchain continues to generate buzz within the health sector, and one particular application in the form of smart contracts, is now eyed as an innovation that can push the industry forward. Among its features, blockchain's decentralized verification model is one of the most valuable. The industry can use it to deploy blockchain smart contracts, a type of decentralized contract that verifies, adjudicates, and executes itself.
Blockchain-based smart contracts for healthcare automation
Previously, payers and institutions were required to go through numerous transactions, processing and verification systems. For example, a person asking for insurance coverage might need a lawyer to negotiate a contract, making the execution of the contract cumbersome and expensive. And in the case of disputes, third parties are necessary to ensure fairness. Sometimes, people even feel the need to verify if a third party is qualified to adjudicate.
But with smart contracts, there is no third party. The terms of the contract are set and secured within the blockchain network, with the network itself acting as the ledger. When the contract's terms are fulfilled, the terms will be executed.
This kind of technology is crucial in an industry such as healthcare, which has complex relationships with various agents. As healthcare processes are interconnected with banks, governments, legal institutions, and individual payers, executing contracts are often complicated. By using smart contracts, the whole transaction process is streamlined and simplified. This includes payment processing, claims adjudication, and other processes that typically require lawyers and months of waiting. Being able to consolidate these processes will improve the healthcare provider's revenue performance and remittance. It will also mean fewer lawsuits and headaches.
Hospitals around the world are now seeing the benefits of blockchain smart contracts. Taipei Medical University Hospital recently launched an online blockchain-based healthcare platform that stores medical records, referrals, and other processes using smart contracts. Their system has become particularly effective in improving inter-hospital transfers and referral requests. This is similar to MedicalChain's technology which was previously discussed on Blockchain Healthcare Review. Change's Intelligent Healthcare Network and TIBCO's recent collaboration, Project Dovetail, is also aiming to create an industry standard in healthcare smart contracts.
At the same time, healthcare institutions are now heading towards automation and more advanced security measures. This is due to the fact that the medical industry is a prime target for hackers. In fact, after the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo was hacked for 6 weeks, more hospitals have been proactive in terms of cybersecurity. IT professionals and cybersecurity managers are being hired to keep their data infrastructure as secure and updated as possible. This results in an increasing demand for healthcare administrators and managers that can rise to the challenges. Maryville University suggests that nowadays technical expertise is a skill that is very sought after by healthcare organizations in the US and across the world. Special skills such as proficiency in blockchain-based verification and consolidating data streams are necessary for a successful systems upgrade. Having personnel who are well versed in blockchain can also increase efficiency, as their familiarity with the technology allows them to facilitate faster information exchanges. One scenario could be having all of a doctor's patient records stored in a single secure digital ledger, which can be quickly opened when needed.
While it may take some time before blockchain smart contracts can achieve industry-wide acceptance, they have already started to gain traction. In the meantime, the healthcare industry should consider preparing its workforce for more disruption.
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Alisha Chloe
Alisha Chloe has been a cybersecurity advocate who has also contributed to a number of small online tech magazines.
Medicalchain – Blockchain for Electronic Health Records
At the core of MedicalChain is the idea that medical data should be accessible by doctor and patient alike. Currently, individual records are housed in local hospitals and clinics. This makes it difficult for providers to update information efficiently and leaves the individual patient out of the equation. The best way to achieve updated medical information is through a digital platform both doctor and patient can access for payments, health updates and prescription ordering. The platform is built on a system of secure, distributed transactions that patients can view like a ledger. The records can't be altered because the platform assigns time stamping and numbered sequences to each record, called blocks. The MedicalChain app allows access to the records anywhere in the world by digital key holders.
Medicalchain making medical data availability with blockchain technology
Since the app works with the patient as the central figure, they can allow and forbid access to clinicians, insurers, pharmacists and anyone they give permission to. Patients can request second opinions or allow certain doctors to write prescriptions to an encrypted page. A pharmacist with access could fill the prescription and take payment through the app. The data is stored on multiple servers that work on the same blockchain consensus, called nodes. Each one encrypts a portion of the blockchain ledger and records every transaction or change to the patient account, preventing unauthorized uses. It uses Hyperledger's language to determine domain model for the network.
The MedicalChain ecosystem works through digital tokens. The ICO offered up 500 million in MedTokens for use on MedicalChain. The tokens can be used by research institutions to pay individuals for access to their health data used in trials. The tokens are also used to pay for medical services by hospitals using MedicalChain resources. Computer operators on the network (nodes) are also paid in tokens for maintaining the ledger. Physicians are also paid in tokens for answering patient questions and participating in telemedicine consultations.
B2C Digital Health Adopters
The ideal adopter of this technology is a patient that travels often. The accessibility of the secure web portal makes staying on top of personal medical information easy when out of the patient's country of origin. The telemedicine consultations allow those in foreign countries access to a doctor that speaks their language.
A second type if adopter might be a family in a country without access to a hospital but with decent communications (internet, phone). They can get advice from experts and pay for services from their accounts with the tokens. The token value isn't determined by a weak currency either, it retains its value in relation to services on the app.
A third type is anyone with a long history of medical problems and disparate records. The difficulty of collecting years of hospital visits, payments and medicine is made easier by adding it to a secure database protected by blockchain technology.
B2B Adopters
MedicalChain could add insurance providers and third party outfits like medical device companies and gyms to their ecosystem. With the tokens, patients could be rewarded for going with a low cost service provider recommended by MedicalChain. One can imagine the possibilities of discounts getting larger for patients as the number of companies signed on grows.
The biggest advantage of blockchain technology is the security of the records for individual users. Security is a major concern in the healthcare industry since so much medical information is required (legally) to be kept private. Hospitals and clinics value patient confidentiality and demand secure networks.
The potential for efficient patient care shows blockchains have a real value in the healthcare industry. If enough hospitals partner with groups offering centralized record keeping it could be the new norm for medicine and treatment.
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Brennan B.
Brennan is a blockchain technical adviser in the healthcare sector and blockchain entrepreneur who has worked on developing proprietary concepts for both artificial intelligence and enterprise blockchain. He is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Health Professions where he earned a M.S. in biomedical informatics.
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