Tag: blockchain

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Blockchain Healthcare Providers Patients

Blockchain: Reimagining the Future of Health Data

It’s time for us to reimagine the future of healthcare information technology. More specifically, it’s time for us to rethink the management of personal health information, i.e. data from electronic health records (EHRs) and wearable devices. Data will continue to drive the technology that is becoming increasingly intertwined in our everyday lives and this remains especially true for healthcare.

From internet-enabled medical devices to fitness trackers, developments in digital health are creating new opportunities for comprehensive patient care and raising new questions about the ethical management of healthcare data. At Patientory, we believe the correct application of blockchain technology will allow us to effectively take advantage of these opportunities and provide answers to some of these questions.

Challenges for Comprehensive Care

Despite the advent of EHRs, medical records still suffer from a lack of interoperability. IT systems are often siloed and unique to the provider, which means a large amount of time and resources are spent simply requesting, sending, and compiling health information. This makes it challenging to create a comprehensive picture of an individual’s health across multiple providers, especially when there are variations in insurance coverage and geographic location over time.

Additionally, we are starting to see an increase in clinicians relying on patient-generated health data in conjunction with clinical data. This type of information includes health histories, symptoms, lifestyle choices, biometrics, etc., and can better inform care decisions because it provides valuable insight into an individual’s overall health and well-being in between medical visits. While patient portals and EHRs allow for a small portion of this data to be compiled, today’s technologies could be leveraged more effectively to improve health outcomes.

Challenges for Healthcare Data Management

In addition to being siloed, legacy healthcare IT systems are often aging and lacking in robust cybersecurity measures. Hospitals are particularly appealing targets for cyberattacks because their daily operations rely heavily on up-to-date information from electronic medical records,  and stolen health information is worth ten times more than a credit card number on the black market. And the more an EHR is fragmented across multiple providers, the higher the patient’s risk of personal data being exposed to people with malicious intent.

Since all of a provider’s EHRs are stored in one place, a successful breach will give a hacker access to all of that information at once. What’s especially troubling about this is that individuals have little control over the storage of their own personal health data and can do little to prevent this. There is an overall lack of patient control when it comes to the access and use of their own medical data, and this reflects broader societal questions about data management. Legislation, including HIPAA, simply has not caught up to the growing role of data in our lives.

Blockchain as a Solution

When applied to EHRs, blockchain can potentially address these issues. A blockchain consists of encrypted blocks of data that are immutable and linked together chronologically in a chain. In a healthcare setting, these blocks of data could be doctor’s appointments, surgical procedures, x-ray images, prescriptions, blood test results, patient-generated health data, etc. Copies of the blockchain would be distributed across a specified network of users and any additions to the chain would be updated for all users in real-time. Individuals would be in charge of sharing the decryption key for their own associated blocks of data with their chosen healthcare provider(s).

With a distributed application like Patientory’s, individuals would have access to a comprehensive picture of their health that includes compiled data from EHRs and wearable devices. Breaking the silos of traditional medical record storage would not only make the process of sharing EHRs significantly easier, but also result in more robust security. By integrating with PTOYNet distributed and decentralized blockchain network our application is able to adhere to both HIPAA and robust security standards.

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Blockchain

Blockchain: Unlocking Healthcare Data to Empower Patients and Improve Care

“Blockchain has the power to: a) reduce costs and increase operational efficiency, b) build trust while improving the quality of comprehensive care and c) empower individuals to take charge of their health. It’s time for us to reimagine the future of healthcare information technology.”

– From Blockchain: Unlocking Healthcare Data to Empower Patients and Improve Care

In a recent blog post for the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Patientory CEO Chrissa McFarlane shares her vision for the application of blockchain to healthcare data. If correctly implemented, blockchain technology could help empower patients and improve care by providing these specific benefits:

  • Aggregated personal health information
  • Improved data security and integrity
  • Patient-centered control of data access and use

To learn more about how Patientory’s distributed application contributes to these goals, click here.

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Healthcare Providers Patients

The True Potential of Patient-Generated Health Data

There is no doubt that aggregated health data will continue to shape the future of healthcare. There are vast amounts of data available in today’s society, and health researchers are tapping into it to advance medical science. Large sets of data are regularly compiled and analyzed, and the findings are used to predict epidemics, cure diseases, provide better preventative care, and lower healthcare costs, among other positive things. The widespread adoption of electronic health records and the increasing prevalence of internet-enabled medical devices are creating even more opportunities for valuable data collection. While this unlocks very exciting possibilities for healthcare scientists and providers, where does the patient fit into all of this?

Patient-generated health data (PGHD) is defined by The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology as “health-related data created, recorded, or gathered by or from patients (or family members or other caregivers) to help address a health concern.” This includes health and treatment histories, symptoms, lifestyle choices, biometric data, etc. When used in conjunction with existing clinical data, PGHD can provide additional insight into an individual’s overall health and better inform decisions made by care providers. The use and sharing of PGHD can gather important information about an individual’s well-being between medical visits, allow for shared decision-making in preventive and chronic care management, and ultimately improve the cost, quality, and coordination of care.

Trust between patients and providers is a cornerstone of the medical profession and higher levels of trust result in improved health outcomes. In the Digital Health Technology Vision 2018, Accenture found that ninety-four percent of health executives believe that treating customers as partners is important or very important for gaining consumer trust. By its very nature, PGHD creates a valuable opportunity for an individual to become a true partner in their own care. Through the process of supplying data the provider would not have access to otherwise, the patient is given a voice and empowered to actively engage in their health. The power of this voice is further supported by today’s wellness apps, wearables, and fitness trackers, which are increasing consumer engagement with personal health data. However, as with any opportunity, there are potential challenges that need to be addressed.

First of all, electronic health records (EHRs) suffer from a lack of interoperability. The major benefit of PGHD is it can supplement the information found in EHRs to provide a more comprehensive picture of an individual’s health. This benefit cannot be fully realized if patient data is fragmented and siloed across multiple providers and IT systems. Another concern is data privacy and security. We are faced with the reality of hackers and data breaches almost daily, and consumers will be less willing to provide PGHD if they believe their personal information is at risk. Patientory’s distributed application uses blockchain technology to address these concerns and empowers individuals to compile and manage their own health information from multiple providers and wearable devices. They can then securely share their comprehensive health picture with the healthcare provider(s) of their choice, which allows all stakeholders to benefit from the use of PGHD. Learn more about our solution here.

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Blockchain Events

Blockchain Panels from ConV2X Now Available for Listening

Patientory attended ConVerge2Xcelerate in October, a healthcare modernization event that brought together the foremost innovators and leaders in blockchain technology, telehealth, AI, and other technologies. The intention of the conference was to address the most compelling issues, growth opportunities, and financial implications of these technologies for the healthcare industry.

Patientory CEO Chrissa McFarlane spoke on two different blockchain-focused panels at the event. The full audio for both panels is now available from Blockchain in Healthcare Today. Follow the links below to listen to the discussions.

Panel 1: Tokens & The Internet of Value: Blending Game Theory, Computer Science, Psychology, and Economics

Panel 2: Data Sharing? The Case for Blockchain at the Global Convergence of Healthcare, Life Sciences, and Consumer Markets

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Blockchain

Can Blockchain Help Companies Become GDPR Compliant?

blockchain gdpr

The General Data Protection Regulation went into effect in the European Union this year, but the full impact of the groundbreaking legislation still remains to be seen. The new rules were enacted to further protect consumer data rights in regards to data storage and businesses were required to comply. However, one of the major provisions requires companies to allow consumers to withdraw or edit their personal data from a database, which poses a challenge to the immutable nature of blockchain.

Andrew Arnold, a contributor to Forbes, believes compliance is still possible. Blockchain simply offers a new, more secure method of processing and storing large amounts of data. In his words: “In fact, embracing blockchain-based identity management means assuming ‘privacy by design’ –  the biggest demand from the regulators. And blockchain technology can become businesses’ strongest ally in meeting GDPR regulations without many troubles.” To read more about possible solutions for aligning blockchain with the GDPR, click here.

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Blockchain Events

Blockland Solutions Conference Highlights Cleveland’s Blockchain Efforts and Patientory

Cleveland, Ohio is working hard to lead the way in becoming a cryptocurrency and blockchain friendly city. There is a downtown technology hub in the works as well as a new think tank devoted to blockchain technology research and adoption. Many of the region’s universities, such as Baldwin Wallace, are already incorporating blockchain into curriculums. Additionally, Ohio just became the first state in the nation to accept cryptocurrency for business tax payments.

Patientory had the pleasure of experiencing Cleveland’s technological drive at the inaugural Blockland Solutions: Blockchain for Business & Government, a conference at the start of December. Both the presentation and the healthcare panel featuring CEO Chrissa McFarlane went very well, and we were highlighted as a premier blockchain company. We also discovered opportunities to build case studies with healthcare organizations for enterprise-level adoption of blockchain.

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Blockchain Events

Patientory Participates in a Healthcare Panel at Blockland Cleveland

Blockland Cleveland: Healthcare Block Study panel

Yesterday, Patientory Founder and CEO Chrissa McFarlane was one of the panelists for the Healthcare Block Study during Blockland Solutions: Blockchain for Business and Government. Blockland Solutions, Cleveland’s first blockchain conference, continues through today and has a focus on real-world problem solving and business and government applications of blockchain technology. Check out images from the panel in the gallery below.

Panelists Pictured

Akram Boutros, President & CEO, The MetroHealth System

Evin McMullen, Project Lead at Linnia, a startup within the ConsenSys family of companies

Stephanie Perez, Associate Director, R3

Dr. Shane McNamee, Chief Medical Officer, mdlogix

Chrissa McFarlane, Founder & CEO, Patientory

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Blockchain Patients

The Dark Side of Medical Data Trading

Longitudinal data, i.e. data collected from an individual at multiple points in time, can be very useful to medical researchers and provide valuable insights into health and illness. A famous example is the Framingham Heart Study, which was initiated in 1948 and continues on today. Researchers have followed three generations of participants, collecting and analyzing data to successfully identify the common characteristics and risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease. This type of health data use is common in clinical research and epidemiology, where aggregated data can reveal important information that leads to improved patient care and public health practices. However, health researchers motivated by advancing medical science are not the only ones interested in longitudinal data collection. Commercial companies motivated by profit are interested too.

There is a multi-billion dollar industry that exists around the buying and selling of medical data. Despite the fact that this is a common practice, many people are unaware of it. Data brokers pool data from hundreds of millions of pharmacy prescriptions, medical records, insurance claims, etc., and then slice and dice the information to sell to interested parties. This is technically allowed under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) because the data is intended to be anonymous. The medical information is not tied directly to a name, social security number, or detailed address. However, data brokers still add unique numbers to the data they collect, which allows them to build detailed patient dossiers by linking different pieces of information to the same individual. And with today’s advances in data mining technology and the vast amount of data available, the re-identification of anonymized data has only gotten easier.

Overall consumers have a troubling lack of control when it comes to their own medical data. We’d like to think the information we share with our healthcare providers remains private but this is not the case. In fact, the legal right of commercial companies to collect and sell health information without the explicit permission of the patient has been upheld by the Supreme Court. In the 1990s, the dominant player in the medical data trading industry began selling data to pharmaceutical companies on what individual physicians were prescribing to patients. These drug companies would then use the information to better tailor and target marketing and sales efforts. Once people caught on and started to complain about the invasion of privacy for profit, a few states passed legislation to limit the trade of prescriber-identifiable information. The major data broker then took them to court and won on corporate “free speech” grounds.

So why are the rights of data brokers to sell data privileged over the rights of patients to manage their own health information? Patientory does not have an answer to this question but we do believe in the power of blockchain to shift this paradigm. Distributed ledger technology has the ability to democratize data access by securing and validating data through a network rather than a single database. In addition to addressing cybersecurity and interoperability issues, blockchain technology can place the control of medical data sharing into the hands of individual patients through an app like Patientory’s. We believe consumers have a right to access their own health information and limit or permit the use of it as they see fit.

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Blockchain Events

Patientory’s Work on the “Cost to Zero” Health Moonshot Will Be Featured at StartUp Health Festival

This coming January, Patientory will be attending StartUp Health Festival 2019, a transformative gathering of 2,000 leaders, change-makers, innovators and entrepreneurs who are positively disrupting the healthcare industry. We are included on a list of 21 companies who are using Moonshot Thinking to radically reduce the cost of care.

Our patient-centered app can greatly reduce the costs associated with securely accessing and transferring medical information by leveraging blockchain technology. We will be sharing our work at the festival alongside the other twenty companies working towards the “Cost to Zero” Moonshot. You can find the full list here.

About StartUp Health

StartUp Health is organizing, supporting, and investing in a global army of Health Transformers, i.e. entrepreneurs reimagining the future of health. Since 2011, StartUp Health has been coaching and connecting Health Transformers from around the world who have the mindset to solve 10 Health Moonshots: Access to Care, Cost to Zero, Cure Disease, End to Cancer, Women’s Health, Children’s Health, Nutrition & Fitness, Brain Health, Mental Health & Happiness, and Longevity. StartUp Health is helping Health Transformers achieve their Health Moonshots to improve the health and well-being of everyone in the world.

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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.