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You may have heard of the term "blockchain", which is not surprising considering that it has become much more common in health settings. Better known as the basic technology for cryptocurrencies, it has potential uses in the health sector, but also poses a couple of concerns.
Before exploring its advantages and disadvantages, however, it is useful to define the term and determine what might be its potential use cases in the field of health care. So you heard the term "blockchain". Now what is it, exactly?
WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN?
It's complicated.
But in basic terms it is a distributed register technology to store data as a series of immutable and unalterable records. First came to the fore as a basis for the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, in which he transferred value without an intermediary, like a bank.
This is one of the main tricks of his repertoire. It also provides a distributed ledger, ensuring that no one can spend the same money twice. And instead of recording transactions in a central database – where funds are deducted from one account and added to another – blocks of digital blocks in blocks, which are then chained with cryptographic keys. The chain then traces the history of changes.
Each participant receives a copy and the content of each block is blocked. If someone agrees to alter the data, their copy of the chain will be broken, immediately and without subtlety.
Potential applications for distributed ledger technology include requests processing and credentials, among many others. There are probably revenue streams and business models that are enabled using blockchain, as long as there is an organizational understanding of what technology is and what it can do.
WHAT CAN CAN DO?
He can do a lot, apparently. Take the credentials as an example. It is a well-known source of pain for both payers and providers. Blockchain has the potential to drive efficiencies in the way vendor credentials are validated, and could have a return on investment for hospitals and payers – about $ 7,500 a day in net profits for a doctor that would take credentials, Hashed Health Chief The operational officer Corey Todaro told HealthcareITNews.
The possibilities do not end there. In his Global Blockchain Survey of 2018 at the start of this year, Deloitte found that more than 1,000 executives around the world, from all industries, about 74% said their organizations see a " convincing business case "for the use of the blockchain. They are planning their technological investments accordingly.
There are four potential promises that these executives see in blockchain. One is disintermediation: Blockchain could help healthcare systems avoid relying on expensive intermediaries such as medical data aggregators and suppliers' data validation service providers.
Some believe that the blockchain has a capacity for transparency and verifiability. Value-based reimbursements, clinical supply chains and other complex transactions could benefit from greater openness and efficiency among the various stakeholders.
Industrial collaboration is another possible advantage. More efficient sharing of information for use cases such as supplier credentials, longitudinal patient records and clinical trials could be triggered by blockchain.
Furthermore, technology offers potentially new blockchain-based revenue opportunities and could transform the notions of patient data ownership and monetization.
CONCERNS ON BLOCKCHAIN
Although there are certainly advantages in adopting blockchain technology, C-suite executives should be prepared to radically change business models. And with the change come some potential concerns.
According to Forbes, a universal blockchain standard poses new risks for privacy and security. Health data breaches have become somewhat epidemic and 40% of those violations come from "insiders", people who already have access to health documents in some way.
Because of changing schedules, undefined information needs and complex roles, it is often difficult to define who should access which records. There are also disincentives to prevent people from seeing information, because instant access to them can sometimes be a life or death situation involving things like allergies and drugs.
This creates an inconvenient Catch-22. For health care to see the benefits of blockchain-based medical records, anyone who needs sensitive patient information should be able to access. But as a healthcare system is more successful, there is a systemic risk for patients, especially if the organization does not have the ability to determine who should and should not look at a medical record.
WHAT TO DO TO BE SUCCESS
First of all, it is useful not to get stuck in a single protocol. Blockchains are implemented via open-source protocols and each set of functionality and functionality of these protocols is constantly evolving, so organizations need to be flexible and use the details of each use case to determine which protocol to use.
Secondly, organizations should create their own business blockchain strategies. Here it is important to experiment with a couple of different use cases, see if certain features and functions mature and if the value could evolve in the short term. Participating in a pilot can help in this sense.
Third, it will be important to get on board early. This allows an organization to help design the governance agreement, and get some hard learning out of the way – in a couple of years, when blockchain is omnipresent, browsing of its benefits and its disadvantages will become a simple muscle memory.
Twitter: @JELagasse
Send an email to the writer: [email protected]
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