// Blockchain Application // Can The Blockchain Transform Healthcare IT?
How the trusted mechanism based on blockchain technology can affect the way medical information is processed. Promising use cases have already been formalised, but technology alone cannot do it all and the main difficulty is not technical.
Introduction
The blockchain cannot only have an impact on the health sector, but it could even transform the sector one day. But the adoption process is still too early to determine to what extent. And as in other sectors, the real influence of the blockchain on the way health services are provided, billed, paid and managed has not yet been determined.
Defined as a "single version of the truth" made possible by an unalterable and secure time-stamped register, several copies of which are kept by several parties, the blockchain is considered by many to be a revolutionary method of managing transactions.
An industry that processes digital transactions involving medical records, patient data and other sensitive information certainly need ways to better protect the integrity and security of these transactions.
Is the blockchain the answer?
How blockchain could impact health
According to a report by consulting firm Deloitte Consulting LLP, "blockchain technology has the potential to transform health care, placing the patient at the center of the health care ecosystem and increasing the security, privacy, and interoperability of health data".
"This technology could provide a new model for health information exchanges (HIE) by making electronic medical records more efficient, disintermediated, and secure. While it is not a panacea, this new, rapidly evolving field provides fertile ground for experimentation, investment, and proof-of-concept testing".
According to Deloitte's study, tools based on the blockchain can reduce or eliminate friction and costs for existing intermediaries. They can help connect fragmented systems to generate knowledge and better assess the value of care. In the long term, a national blockchain network for electronic medical records could improve efficiency and promote better patient health outcomes, the office suggests.
However, some experts are sceptical about the role of blockchain in the health sector.
"There are very few true proof points yet," says Martha Bennett, principal analyst at Forrester Research. "There's a lot of talk about the 'what', very little about the 'how', in particular when you look at scaled-out, operationalized processes. And hardly anybody talks about key management, which will be a challenge."
For many of the blockchain use cases proposed in the health sector, "the real issues have nothing to do with technology, and everything with market structure, vested interests and politics," Bennett says. "Projects are in the very early stages, mostly proof of concept", she said. There are some limited deployments, the most promising of which augment existing processes.
Promising use cases
Bennett added by saying that it will be adding transparency to the processes when it comes to the claims or drug prescribing or many other things. This is a key area in which the blockchain can able to apply as this process is said to be the most successful process that is needed in the ecosystem partners which willing to collaborate.
A good use case, which is less problematic in terms of confidentiality, involves any type of reference data, such as information about health providers.
The tracking of returned drugs is also a promising use case, particularly if regulations prevent the industry from managing a centralized system.
Health data presents two inherent challenges that the blockchain can help solve, says RJ Krawie, director of the customer strategy and applied design at Deloitte. First, health data is often sensitive and must remain private, and is shared only in certain circumstances. The other is that there are benefits to having more data when assessing a current health problem or condition.
“Blockchain can help by creating a secure way to electronically hold health data, and allow a person to control who sees it and who doesn’t." Krawie said. "It also facilitates tracking health data, and every heath interaction throughout that person’s entire life, giving them the benefit of the maximum possible amount of data when making a health determination. ”
The blockchain provides a more secure method of data storage and, in a sense, is a better "lock" for Krawie.
"Many of the cybersecurity techniques are put in place to stop humans from unwittingly sharing the data," he said. "People will still be tricked into giving the wrong access to the wrong people.”
Can the blockchain allow national interoperability?
The Deloitte report noted that the Office of the National Health Information Technology Coordinator, a division of the Office of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has published a common roadmap on interoperability that identifies the key policy and technical components necessary for national interoperability.
These components include an ubiquitous and secure network infrastructure; verifiable identity and authentication of all participants; and a consistent representation of authorization to access electronic health information.
But current technologies do not fully meet these requirements, says the Deloitte report, because they face limitations related to security, confidentiality and full ecosystem interoperability.
The blockchain could help to solve these problems, but it has not yet reached maturity, according to the report. Several technical, organizational and economic behavioural challenges must be addressed before a health blockchain can be adopted by organizations across the country.
The future of the blockchain in the health sector
According to the Deloitte report, blockchain technology creates unique opportunities to reduce complexity, enable trust-based collaboration and create secure and unalterable information.
"HHS is right to track this rapidly evolving field to identify trends and sense areas where government support may be needed for the technology to realize its full potential in health care," the report says. "To shape blockchain’s future, HHS should consider mapping and convening the blockchain ecosystem, establishing a blockchain framework to coordinate early-adopters, and supporting a consortium for dialogue and discovery. "
While there is not yet a technological solution to protect all medical data, allowing for efficient and secure data exchange, such a solution is possible and possible in the future, according to Krawie.
"Blockchain is not a panacea," he warns. "Blockchain technology creates unique opportunities to reduce complexity, enable trustless collaboration, and create secure and immutable information."
Will the blockchain radically change the health sector? This remains to be determined. "No technology can do that," says Bennett. "But blockchain-based networks can help shake up the industry if ecosystems decide to collaborate and change the way things are done--while of course maintaining regulatory compliance."
Sources : Deloitte Global Blockchain Survey, Deloitte, SPECIAL REPORT : How blockchain will disrupt business and BlendBulls
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