Blockchain SpotLight: Medicalchain
I have some opinions on the latest buzz surrounding cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies, but instead of speculating about the next alt coin that will dethrone Bitcoin or how much of a larger market cap Ethereum is going to have over Ripple, I want to talk about practical blockchain technologies that have some potential to really disrupt some industries. I think that talks about the overall benefits of blockchain have been lost amidst the growing hype and resulting crypto bubble that has recently dominated the finance news. So lets talk about something actually worthwhile, and lets start with Medicalchain, a blockchain for electronic health records (EHR) and how it will change everything we know about going to the doctor’s.
By the way have you gotten your flu shot? Have you been to the doctor’s recently? Do you know your medical insurance provider? Do you even have medical insurance? These are all valid questions that must be answered in one form or another (no pun intended) when you arrive at the doctor’s office. If you’re a new patient you have to fill out even more information about your family history or any allergic conditions you may have. All of this paperwork comes to people like me (disclaimer: I am a part-time medical office assistant and I work with EHR software) and we have to make sure it gets filed in the right charts. EHR users have to make sure your insurance is up to date and that your email is correct and that your address is the right one and… hold up we just received a fax of your prescription refill from the pharmacy (better not lose that) and we need to file your lab order for a blood test and we need to make an appointment for the next visit and… oh my word, it can get into a mess really quickly.
What if we didn’t need to do all of that? What if you had a medical chart that followed you around everywhere you go? What if every time you went into the doctor, they knew exactly who you were and what is wrong with you before you even step foot into the office? This, my friends, is a reality that can be made possible with an EHR blockchain. I wish I would have came up with the idea myself, but Medicalchain beat me to the punch.
It’s hard to grasp the implications of this technology without having experienced a frustrating trip to the doctor or several doctors in a row for that matter. My father recently experienced this firsthand when he finally decided to do something about the pain in his left leg. First he had to make an appointment with his primary care physician (PCP) in order to receive a lab test for a hip x-ray and a referral for a specialist. This is a standard practice within the industry, but it begins the long paper trail of what will become your medical chart as you begin to see more specialized professionals. He then went to a neurologist that specializes in spinal and back related injuries and was referred to a neuromuscular specialist to have a biospy done. Each time, he was required to print out the copies of his latest tests and bring them in to the next specialist. At one point he even had to physically go to the MRI and radiology labs in order to receive the lab test results. Insane!
For his next visit, which involved seeing a neurosurgeon, he dropped off the files a week before his appointment so that the surgeon could review them. The neurosurgeon had ruled out that the problem was not nerve related and was ready to give another referral when he noticed the limp in my dad’s walk as he was heading out the door. He said it was definitely something hip related… Wow…
The original lab test involved a hip x-ray which by the way, the neurosurgeon didn’t even look at it even when it was presented to him a week in advance of my dad’s appointment. After 5 doctors, 2 hip x-rays, a blood-work test, a muscle biopsy, and a back MRI my dad’s diagnosis was that he needed a hip replacement. All of this paper work that circulated around from each doctor to the next, lost in translation, and totally overlooked, the only thing they really needed was the original x-ray from the first appointment. It hurts just to think about it!
Medicalchain can stop all of this from happening. The labs and the doctors and the pharmacies don’t own your medical chart, you do, and it exists in the form of blocks on the medical blockchain. In order for your PCP to access your data in the block you have to first authorize the request, which expires after a certain amount of time. If your PCP prescribes you a medication, your pharmacy has access to your chart to fill the order and add these transactions which will add to your medical chart block on the chain. When your visit has been recorded by the PCP, your health insurance provider will then have time to review the claim that was made by your PCP or specialist, which by the way, is conveniently located in the block that is your medical chart. No more fragmented documents, no more papers, no more going into labs to print out your test results. You own your medical chart data and you get rewards for giving access to your medical chart history to institutions like pharmaceutical companies. You can finally own your medical data and that is something very exciting to look forward to. Remember that next time you go in for a doctor’s visit and you’ll be wishing the blockchain would just hurry up and get here already!
