Tag: cybersecurity

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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 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

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

Hospital surgery emergency operating room surgical liquid drip equipment photo.

“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.