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Blockchain Patients

Data Brokers Have Access to Your Health Information, Do You?

In today’s technology-driven world, data is an inevitable part of our lives. From fitness wearables to wireless medical devices to electronic medical records, the digitization of health information will continue to be a common practice. There is another common practice in the healthcare industry that most people do not like to talk about: medical data trading. A multi-billion-dollar market exists for information found in medical records, including prescription records, hospital visits, blood tests, insurance records, and doctor notes. Commercial companies are able to buy and sell this data without violating HIPAA because the information is not directly tied to an individual’s identity. However, the records bought and sold are often still associated with an age, gender, partial zip code, and a doctor’s name.

In the past, the stripping of a name, address, and social security number from a medical record would have been sufficient to protect anonymity. In today’s world, this is not the case as the re-identification of seemingly anonymized data is only getting easier. A straightforward data mining tool can easily cross-reference multiple databases to aggregate data and re-identify individuals from their theoretically private medical information. As an example, Harvard University Professor and computer scientist Latanya Sweeney was able to link zip codes, birth dates, and gender from a voter registration list to publicly available medical data, including hospital discharge records and health care cost data on hospital visits. And this was research conducted almost twenty years ago! The capabilities of data mining technology have only improved alongside the vast amount of data available today.

While consumers have the ability to increase the privacy of their non-medical data and control access to it, there is a frustrating lack of control when it comes to medical data. Even with the advent of electronic medical records, patients still do not have access to comprehensive health data across providers due to a lack of interoperability. Additionally, there is no way for patients to opt out of third parties using their anonymized health data for commercial purposes or otherwise. Theoretically, patients could choose healthcare providers based on whether or not their health information systems sell anonymized data, but in reality, this choice is limited by health insurance companies and specific health plans. If the patient is truly at the center of healthcare, then the management of health information needs to reflect that.

Patientory wants to change this narrative by applying blockchain technology to electronic health information. In addition to blockchain’s robust cybersecurity abilities, it can democratize data access in favor of the consumer. Instead of storing and distributing data through a single database, multiple copies of the same data are shared on a ledger distributed across a peer-to-peer network of users. When one copy of the ledger is changed, all of the other copies are updated in real-time and the validity is guaranteed by the network. By using a distributed application like Patientory’s to access electronic health records, patients will have the power to decide exactly who can access their medical data and for what purpose. The corporate rights of data brokers should no longer be privileged over the rights of consumers to control their own health data.

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Blockchain Public Health

Blockchain and Public Health: Estonia’s Experience

Did you know that the country of Estonia uses blockchain technology to ensure healthcare data security and electronic medical record integrity? Ninety-nine percent of patients have a countrywide digital record that integrates data from Estonia’s different healthcare providers to create a comprehensive record each patient can access online. One of the country’s technology partners, Nortal, writes more about Estonia’s use of blockchain here.

By providing individual citizens with a fully transparent and accurate view of their medical data, Estonia is empowering patients to take control of their health. While the scale and complexity of the United States’ healthcare system makes this more challenging to accomplish, Patientory believes patient-centered blockchain technology can lead the way in facilitating more effective health data practices.

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Blockchain Events

Blockland Solutions: Blockchain for Business and Government

blockland solutions blockchain conference logo cleveland ohio

In a little less than two weeks, Patientory Founder and CEO Chrissa McFarlane will be speaking during Cleveland’s first blockchain conference, Blockland Solutions: Blockchain for Business and Government. The conference will take place December 2-4, 2018 at the Huntington Convention Center of Greater Cleveland, Ohio.

Blockland Solutions will focus on blockchain solutions for business and government applications and provide experiential learning through hands-on coding and real-world problem solving. Chrissa will be speaking during the Healthcare Block Study on December 3, 2018 from 11:30am to 12:30pm. The panel will be focused on blockchain solutions addressing high-level business challenges facing the healthcare industry.

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Blockchain Healthcare Providers Patients Public Health

Restoring Trust in Public Health with Blockchain Technology

Trust is essential to building and maintaining strong, healthy relationships, and the relationship between a patient and their healthcare provider is no exception. Patients with trust in their doctors are more likely to follow treatment plans and medical advice on lifestyle and family planning issues, reducing their lifetime cost of care and increasing their quality of life. A 1999 study found that sixty-two percent of patients with high levels of trust always take their prescribed medication and follow their doctor’s recommendations, but only fourteen percent of patients with low levels of trust do. As another example, for patients with H.I.V., trust in medical providers is associated with more clinic visits, fewer emergency room visits, increased use of antiretroviral drugs, and improved reported physical and mental health.

Mistrust, unfortunately, has been an increasing trend in healthcare. In 1966, almost three-fourths of Americans said they had great confidence in the leaders of the medical profession; by 2012 only one-third expressed this view. Combined with the overall decline in Americans’ trust in institutions the last few decades, the potential threats to public health become apparent. A lack of trust can lead to individual patients refusing vaccinations or forgoing the flu shot, which can have potentially deadly consequences for the greater population. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, only thirty-one percent of the American public said they trusted public health officials to share complete and accurate information about the Ebola virus and a mere fourteen percent said they trusted the government to do the right thing. If these patterns of mistrust continue, future responses to public health emergencies could be drastically impaired.

So what can be done to rebuild trust in our healthcare systems? A recent report by Accenture reveals two clear steps that healthcare institutions can take: over ninety percent of health executives believe that treating customers as partners and ensuring the security of consumer data are both important or very important for gaining consumer trust. Consumer-centricity and data security are also two of the key benefits of blockchain technology, particularly when applied to electronic health records (EHRs). Traditional EHRs suffer from a lack of interoperability and cybersecurity due to varying practice standards and legacy IT systems. This makes sharing comprehensive health data securely across healthcare providers and institutions especially challenging and leaves consumers with little control over their own data.

Patientory is currently using the PTOYNet blockchain administered by the Patientory Association to shift this paradigm and empower patients to take control of their medical records. Blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, democratizes trust by removing the ‘middleman’ in transactions and allowing information to be recorded and shared by a community. Rather than relying on a central trust authority, blockchain relies on cryptography and a peer network for verification. All of the participants have a copy of the ledger updated in real time, providing a comprehensive, immutable record of information. Patientory’s blockchain-based distributed application allows patients to decide exactly who can access their health data and for what purpose. We believe improving consumer access to health data information is the first step to increasing trust in healthcare institutions.

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Blockchain Healthcare Providers Patients

The Accenture Digital Health Technology Vision 2018: Trust and Responsibility

As technology becomes more deeply embedded in our lives, healthcare organizations are increasingly applying new technologies and innovations to deliver personalized, efficient, and informed care. The Accenture Digital Health Technology Vision 2018 emphasizes the need for healthcare providers to prioritize trust and responsibility in order for people to receive the full benefits of digitally enabled healthcare services.

The report explores five specific trends: Extended Reality, Frictionless Business, Internet of Thinking, Citizen AI, and Data Veracity. The first three are considered the enablers of an intelligent healthcare enterprise while the latter two are considered the consequences. Blockchain is primarily considered a part of the Frictionless Business trend. Ninety-one percent of health executives believe blockchain and smart contracts will be critical for their organization over the next three years. Read more about Patientory’s application of blockchain to healthcare here.

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Blockchain Events

Women in HIT Are a Driving Force Behind Blockchain Technology

 

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) recently hosted a webinar titled Women in Blockchain: Making a Difference in Healthcare through Distributed Ledger Technology. Patientory Founder & CEO Chrissa McFarlane was one of the three women in Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) featured, alongside Emily Vaughn of Change Healthcare and Heather Flannery of Blockchain in Healthcare Global.

These three women are considered to be “influential thought-leaders working with blockchain technology,” according to HIMSS. The webinar session covered their respective experiences breaking into the male-dominated field of blockchain and their applications of the technology to healthcare. Read more about how these women have become a driving force behind blockchain technology in healthcare here.

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Blockchain Healthcare Providers

Blockchain: The Defender of Healthcare Organizations against Cybercriminals

There has been a surge the past few years in ransomware attacks, one of the most problematic threats to cybersecurity. Cybercriminals are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars every month by deploying malware that locks victims’ computer files until a ransom fee is paid. There is a harrowing pattern found recently in these crimes: the targeting of hospitals and healthcare organizations. According to a 2016 report by NTT Security, a major cybersecurity firm, 88 percent of all detected ransomware attacks were against the firm’s healthcare clients, despite the fact that healthcare organizations made up only 7.4 percent of the firm’s client base. There have been numerous occurrences to evidence this trend over the last few years. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center declared an “internal emergency” after ransomware left patient files inaccessible by employees. Hancock Health, a hospital in Greenfield, Indiana, had more than 1,400 files locked with names changed to “I’m sorry” until a ransom was paid. The largest recent ransomware attack severely disrupted the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), forcing 45 NHS organizations to cancel operations and appointments. Unfortunately, this story goes on and on.   

So what makes hospitals and other healthcare facilities such appealing targets? Their daily operations completely depend on up-to-date information from electronic medical records. Healthcare providers need quick access to patient histories, drug allergies, surgery directives, and other critical information to provide the appropriate care. This means hospitals are more likely to pay ransom fees to avoid the risks of death or malpractice accusations brought on by delays in patient care. Additionally, medical data is extremely valuable. In fact, stolen health information is worth ten times more than a credit card number on the dark web. Fraudsters can use names, birth dates, billing information, policy numbers, and diagnosis codes to create fake medical identities that allow them to buy medical equipment and drugs or file fictional insurance claims. Finally, healthcare operations are often known for their aging legacy IT infrastructure and a focus on HIPAA compliance instead of employing robust IT security practices. These two factors also contribute to the lack of interoperability across healthcare providers and institutions, which makes securely sharing accurate, comprehensive medical data especially challenging.

Another trend found across these ransomware attacks is the request by cybercriminals for the ransoms to be paid in Bitcoin. Ironically, the technology that supports Bitcoin is also the most promising solution for the security of electronic medical records: Blockchain. Blockchain’s association with hackers gives blockchain an undeservedly bad reputation. Blockchain is not inherently evil, it is simply an effective tool that lazy criminals find easy to use. In fact, blockchain is an especially effective tool to fight against the hackers threatening health data security in exchange Bitcoins. This is true because blockchain is a distributed ledger or public record, that can store multiple copies of the same encrypted data across a network of users on multiple devices. When a hacker breaches a traditional database, they have access to large quantities of information. When a hacker breaches a blockchain, however, they only have access to one or two blocks of siloed data without the important context of the full blockchain.

As one might be able to tell from above, using blockchain to secure medical records would deter hackers from launching cyber-attacks because they would be unable to obtain any valuable health information. This would help healthcare organizations become much less appealing targets for cybercrimes and empower patients to take control of their medical data with a distributed application like Patientory’s. Our blockchain-based platform ensures end-to-end encryption of sensitive medical data and allows patients to decide who can access that information and for what purpose. We envision a future where blockchain has defeated the reign of ransomware and become a key defender of healthcare security.

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Blockchain

Patientory Named One of Top 12 Companies Bringing Blockchain to Healthcare

Patientory was featured on a list of the twelve most promising enterprises leveraging blockchain technology in healthcare. The list was developed by The Medical Futurist (TMF), a news source reporting on exciting health technologies and changes in digital health. Patientory is listed as number four and the full feature can be found here.

TMF sees blockchain as a critical win for healthcare because it could effectively secure health data, including medical records and clinical trial records. This is possible because the blocks in a blockchain cannot be deleted or changed without leaving a trace. Patientory’s blockchain-based platform empowers patients to keep track of their health histories by securing health data across providers and institutions.

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Blockchain

Why Critical Healthcare Infrastructure Needs Blockchain: Thoughts on Cybersecurity from Patientory’s CEO

“The reality is that cyber-attacks have become significantly more sophisticated. Those who manage healthcare IT systems must start to seriously look at improving technologies used to protect the security of sensitive medical data and safeguard ongoing patient care.”

In an article on healthcare cybersecurity, Patientory CEO Chrissa McFarlane writes about the increase in cyber-attacks on healthcare organizations the past few years, the challenges faced by current healthcare IT systems, and the future of blockchain as a service to address these issues.

Blockchain is very difficult for hackers to breach for usable information. It can also be used to empower consumers to take control of their health data and securely share sensitive medical data. Read the full article here.

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Blockchain Public Health

Blockchain and Public Health Belong Together

In instances of disease outbreaks or epidemics, it is vital that public health organizations have the ability to share crucial information quickly. Details regarding treatments, travels, medical records, and vaccines need to be shared as soon as possible across institutions and geographic locations to inform an effective response. For example, if a foreign traveler contracts hepatitis A or a dangerous virus spreads throughout a community by contaminated food or water, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention needs to know about it so they can take appropriate action. To predict future epidemics, develop effective health policies, and ultimately control the spread of infectious diseases, the CDC, state and local health departments, and other organizations need to routinely share public health data. Although this seems like a simple task in the digital age, the reality is much more complicated.

Current systems of health data management are subject to different state laws and local practice standards, as well as concerns about privacy, security, and HIPAA compliance. While public health organizations share the same overall mission, they are unable to freely send and receive data amongst each other. There are a variety of data usage agreements in use and governmental policies dictate strict rules regarding health information access. The process of ensuring the correct data is sent or received by the right person for the right purpose is slow and inefficient. The lack of interoperability across health organizations and state borders results in inherent deficiencies in the management of public health. For example, the 2014 US Ebola outbreak was started by several infected individuals who were allowed back into the US when the government did not receive critical information about their health in time.   

Blockchain technology has been recognized by Patientory and others in the healthcare industry as a viable solution to address the privacy, security, and interoperability issues facing public health. The governance rules of a blockchain allow only predefined, authorized users to access requested information. This would ensure the privacy of sensitive health data and empower public health stakeholders to define and control permissions. Since blockchain is a distributed ledger, transactions are verified, encrypted, and maintained by a network of computers that collectively share the virtually incorruptible information. This peer-to-peer model of data sharing reflects what healthcare organizations need to successfully address public health crises. We here at Patientory wholeheartedly believe that blockchain and public health belong together.