Blockchain in healthcare: From theory to reality

This month, I've been looking at a very interesting topic that is receiving an increasing amount of attention within the IT landscape; Blockchain. Blockchain is a public ledger of transactions, which was originally founded to cater to Bitcoin transactions. Although Blockchain is much more well established within the financial services sector, it is gradually making its way into other industries such as healthcare. Previously theoretical use cases are now being acted upon by innovators in the market. This blog post will look at five examples of how it is being adopted within healthcare and life sciences:

EHR storage & security

• Blockchain is a security technology at its core and with the ever-present concern over the security of electronic health records, it is likely to cater to this challenge first as it enters healthcare. Factom, a provider of Blockchain technology, recently announced a partnership with HealthNautica, a medical records and services solutions provider. Their joint aim is to secure medical records and audit trails using the Blockchain. They will do this by cryptographically encoding private medical data and then a digital fingerprint is formed for time-stamping and verification purposes. This facilitates both the storage of the EHR and its security but what is also interesting is that organizations are also looking into how healthcare providers can send out encrypted personalized medical recommendations, which the user can access with their own, unique key.

DNA wallets

• An Israeli startup named DNA.Bits is planning to store genetic and medical data which is again secured via the blockchain and accessed using private keys and this will form a "DNA wallet". This could allow healthcare providers to securely share – and possibly monetize – patient data, helping pharmaceutical companies to tailor drugs more efficiently. What's striking about this is that the article was published over a year ago in June of 2014, which really highlights that this kind of development is becoming well established.

Bitcoin payments

• In a similar style to Factom and HealthNautica, BitHealth is also looking to store and secure medical records using the blockchain. This system also facilitates Bitcoin payments, giving patients additional options for how they pay their healthcare insurers. Although this relies on the success rate of Bitcoin in the market, insurers who offer this method will have a competitive advantage over their peers. With regards to health insurers, due to blockchain being established within the financial services sector, it is expected that lessons learned will cross over.

Anti-counterfeit drugs

• BlockVerify is looking to use blockchain in the fight against counterfeit drugs. In a similar way to M-Pedigree technologies, it features panels on drug packages that can be peeled or scratched off to reveal a unique verification tag. This is then cross referenced with the blockchain to ensure that the pharmaceutical product is legitimate. 

Protein folding

• Stanford University previously relied on expensive super computers to simulate protein folding as it happens incredibly fast. This method was obviously costly and had a single point of failure. Using the blockchain, they can instead use a decentralized network of over 170,000 computers to produce 40,000 teraflops of computing power. This example will grab the attention of other industries that utilize expensive supercomputers. This could even make its way into the analytical space by utilizing a broad base of data for predictive analytics.

Clearly these are all cutting-edge innovations, but as with the financial sector, they point the way for mainstream adoption. Have you heard any other rumblings of how Blockchain is being used in healthcare and life sciences? How else do you think this new technology could be applied to add value to customers? I'd love to hear what you think. Please comment below and if you've enjoyed this post, please share on social media.

Best Regards,

Jonathan Cordwell
Research Analyst, Healthcare Strategy
ResearchNetwork, CSC

1. Factom, HealthNautica + Factom Announce Partnership, http://blog.factom.org/post/117173667784/healthnautica-factom-announce-partnership, 23rd Apr 2015
2. City A.M., Blockchain breaks new ground with DNA wallet, http://www.cityam.com/1403865514/blockchain-breaks-new-ground-dna-wallet, 27 Jun 2014
3. BitHealth, http://devpost.com/software/bithealth
4. The Coin Front, Block Verify to fight medical counterfeiting problem, http://thecoinfront.com/block-verify-to-fight-medical-counterfeiting-problem/, 11th Mar 2015
5. Daily Trading Profits, New Uses For Blockchain Technology, http://www.dailytradingprofits.com/1279/new-uses-for-blockchain-technology/, 6th October 2014