Blockchain: A Way to (Safely) Bring Down the Barriers to Data

Each person grants access to participants in theirnetwork – such as primary care physicians, specialists, and family members. Network participants would access data only after that participant’s unique digital fingerprint had been validated. Interoperability between electronic health record systems would no longer be an issue because data would sit on the individual’s personal data cloud.

Blockchains establish a platform to automatically enforce privacy regulations. As health data is shifted or linked to blockchains, organizations can track who has shared data and with whom, without revealing the data itself. Further, withblockchain technology, permissible data visibility will be better than ever, which in turn maylead to gains in value-based care. Whereas today patient data sit in disparate silos, from the EMRs of different physician practices to medical devices in consumers’ homes, in the future that information will be fluid—and always at the fingertips of healthcare providers.Once they’ve secured a patient’sconsent,providers will have access toa 360-degree and longitudinal view of that person’s status, and insight as to their status on the care-delivery continuum. And if a medical expertcombines that visibility with analytics and cognitive computing? They’ll get trustworthy, data-driven insights to help provide better patient care.

A Promising Future

The growing pool of patient data available to providers is looking more like an ocean every day: biometric data collected by mobile and wearable devices; clinical data gathered in exam rooms; administrative and claims data used for billing and insurance; and genomic data sequenced and analyzed from laboratories. Additional data sources include “social determinants” data regarding lifestyle-related factors like education, family structure, and socioeconomic status and other patient-generated data. This information is coming in from all directions, and could be immensely valuable to clinicians. Unfortunately, it is not put to use consistently today and often winds up in disarray, or locked up and unreachable in unconnected technologies.

Blockchain, through its secure and decentralized data-sharing framework, will be the solution that healthcare needs—a technological fix to a high-tech problem. And the best news is, it will be cost-effective. It is expected that organizations with legacy information systems or newly purchased EMRs won’t have to gut their existing infrastructures and won’t have to invest in major IT undertakings. They could simply access the technology using SaaS and bring their “off-chain” records to the blockchain.

Blockchain for healthcare is still a work in progress, but all signs are it’s coming soon. When that day arrives, data sharing will change forever—as will the prospects for improving patient care.