HIT Think Why a blockchain EHR makes sense for a patient-centered approach

By now, most people have heard of blockchain, at least for its role as the Bitcoin ledger. As awareness of blockchain has grown, people have come to understand that it is a powerful technology in its own right.

Blockchain is a general purpose, trustworthy, open, indelible ledger in the sky and embodies a fundamental and broadly applicable communication pattern. Financial services seized on blockchain quickly as a way to execute transactions without the cost and delay of escrow, starting a trend that should have that entire industry shaking in fear. Such is the power of a general purpose technology.

As if that weren’t enough, blockchain is also computationally complete, which is a fancy way of saying that you can program the blockchain just like a computer. These apps, however, will be distributed, trustworthy and autonomous, giving rise to “smart contract” applications as normal as trust funds, as banal as casinos or as esoteric as self-spawning corporations.

In healthcare, the opportunities are numerous, with electronic health record (EHR) data one potential and interesting application. Current closed systems prevent interoperability, portability and collaboration. The problems with EHRs are well-known, and from an architectural perspective, you really couldn’t design a worse solution. more http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/opinion/why-a-blockchain-ehr-makes-sense-for-a-patient-centered-approach