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Health technology company Lumedic has launched a new effort to create standards for digital identity in the healthcare sector, with the aim of simplifying the exchange of patient data and removing bottlenecks in the wider healthcare system using blockchain technology .
The Seattle-based company, acquired last year by Providence St. Joseph Health, has named Mastercard, Providence, and Cambia Health Solutions as initial partners in the effort. The company announced the initiative, dubbed Lumedic Exchange, on Tuesday morning.
The approach leverages secure digital wallets on patients’ mobile devices, enabling them to control their health information and determine how and with whom it can be shared. The data is stored in a private and secure blockchain, the immutable ledger technology best known for powering Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency.
Applied throughout the healthcare system, Lumedic says the approach would eliminate much of the friction and ambiguity that exists in healthcare, reducing delays in providing care, making test results accessible more quickly and removing the ambiguity from medical expenses, as well as streamlining billing and payments insurance.
At least, that’s the vision. The company knows it will first have to overcome a major obstacle.
“It’s exciting if it gets to scale. The challenge is that it’s hard to get there, “said Mike Nash, CEO of Lumedic, in an interview this week.” I think approach to standards is a necessity for us to get the wave right. Otherwise, I don’t know how you can changing a sector like healthcare overnight “.
It is one of several healthcare initiatives seeking to use blockchain to create new efficiencies in healthcare while maintaining patient privacy and safety. The concept is not new. For example, consultancy firm Deliotte said in an August 2016 report: “A blockchain-based health information exchange could unlock the true value of interoperability. Blockchain-based systems have the potential to reduce or eliminate the ‘friction and the costs of current intermediaries “.
However, the realities of the pandemic are accelerating the adoption of digital technologies across healthcare. Lumedic’s parent, Providence, one of the largest health systems in the country, says it is using the company’s technology to simplify the safe and anonymous delivery of COVID-19 test results.
Raja Rajamannar, Healthcare President of Mastercard, said in a statement accompanying the announcement that the company is committed to high data standards and believes that “people own their personal data and have the right to control how it is shared. “.
Lumedic says it is modeling the standards-setting approach on other efforts to collaborate on digital identity in different industries, such as the Trust Over IP Foundation (ToIP) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
The company has grown from four to 50 employees as part of Providence since its acquisition last year. Providence recently bundled Lumedic and other initiatives and investments in a Seattle-based health services company called Tegria, with more than 2,500 employees.
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