Ep. 14: Blockchain in Healthcare: How and How Fast Could It Be Applied?
In this podcast, two brilliant women explain applications of blockchain in healthcare.
The first expert you are about to hear from is Nadia Thibault Diakun, Adjunct Lecturer with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University.
She was in the team of researches that wrote the whitepaper Blockchain and Health IT: Algorithms, Privacy, and Data.
Because there’s so much buzz going on around blockchain and because it at least looks promising in some aspects American Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT organized a competiton last year. They were searching for whitepapers on the Use of Blockchain in Health IT and Health-Related Research. The paper submitted by the team with Nadia, was among the 15 winners of the competition.
The second part of the podcast is an interview with Chrissa McFarlane, CEO and Founder of Patientory. The young startup raised 7,2 million dollars through a so-called ICO — Initial Coin Offering. What’s next?
The questions addressed in the podcast are:
- What and where are are the biggest possible potentials for blockchain and where could it bring most benefit?
- What is the difference between a blockchain and already existing platforms aimed at connecting different healthcare providers?
- How does the idea of blockchain technology in healthcare differ from the idea of a uniform EHR system that would solve the problem of interoperability?
- What are the downsides/dangers of blockchain in healthcare?
- Who decides, who can get included in a blockchain?
- In May, the Wannacry virus, which compromised many IT systems around the globe, also hit many hospitals in the UK; apart from the confusion, procedures were canceled, work impossible for a while. How would this scenario be different if the hospitals were using a blockchain solution for data storage?
… and more!
Back to basics: what is blockchain and how does it work?
The most basic concepts to know to understand blockchain are:
1. A transaction.
2. A block.
3. A hash.
4. A smart contract.
A blockchain it a distributed database/ledger which maintains a continuously growing list of records — blocks. Each block consists of transactions. In the financial industry a transaction is a money transfer for example. In healthcare a transaction is an electronic prescription for example.
For basic understanding of blockchain application see this video by Future Thinkers:
Chain of blocks
Once a transaction is sent to the blockchain, you can’t change or delete it. It’s there. To make transactions well organised and even safer, they are merged in blocks.
Each block is a set of transactions. Blocks are like boxes: when one block is filled, the next one gets filled. And when a block is filled, it is hashed. If you’re like me, you’re going ask yourself: what is a hash? A hash is a digital fingerprint or unique identifier.
Hashes are one of the things contributing to high reliability and security of data in the blockchain. Each new block in the blockchain is linked to the previous block through the hash. This is what prevents any block from being altered or a blockchain being inserted between two existing blocks.
So in brief, very simplified way: a blockchain is a distributed ledger of data. It is very safe because of it’s immutability. Immutability is appealing, because it brings transparency. Among other things.
No single point of failure!
Another important thing contributing to the security and appeal of the blockchain is the fact that blockchain is a distributed network. All the parties in the network are connected to the ledger, and all parties hold copies of what is in the network. Consequently it is basically impossible for a cyberattack or a virus to damage data stored in a blockchain, because there is no central person or system that could be targeted and compromised.
ICOs
ICO is an unregulated way of fundraising for cryptocurrency ventures. A company invents their coins/tokens. You can buy them with legal, existing cryptocurrencies.
In a simplified sense coins remind of stocks in a sense that if a company becomes successful, the token value can grow. Buying coins is an investment, lately extremely popular. .It’s practical for startups, because they don’t have to deal with banks and investors and don’t have to give up equity in exchange for funding. I talked to Chrissa about the idea behind Patientory, how developed the solution is at the moment and why she believes this is the next big thing in healthcare.
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Comments, suggestions welcome at: tjasa.zajc@finance.si or @zajctjasa
