Blockchain is a new application mode of computer technology such as distributed data storage, point-to-point transmission, consensus mechanism, and encryption algorithm. The essence is a decentralized database, and some people say it is a distributed public ledger. Everyone can update this ledger, but it cannot be tampered with. The so-called centralization is a center that everyone recognizes and trusts. For example, two people bet on whether the stock market will rise or fall tomorrow, and the person who guesses the right will win 100 yuan, but the two people don’t trust each other and are afraid of refusing to pay. Come from a third party that trusts each other, blockchain technology can solve the problem of maintaining fairness without requiring this third party.
Blockchain is considered to be a viable solution to replace centralized databases. It realizes the management of decentralization and trustless system for the first time. It does not require a third party or trust others to ensure security. The custody is completely through the system algorithm. After we combine some of the characteristics of the blockchain with the medical industry, we will find that the blockchain has three main advantages for the medical industry: high redundancy, prevention of tampering, and complex custody permissions for multiple private keys.
First of all, the blockchain has a complete information backup at each node, and its high redundancy can just prevent hackers from realizing system intrusion.
Secondly, since the power and data of each node of the blockchain are the same, this also means that it is meaningless for the data of a single node to be tampered with. If the system finds that the data of the two nodes are not aligned, it will automatically think The node with more information about the same data is real, and the other one will be discarded. In other words, if you want to tamper with the entire blockchain database, you need to tamper with at least 50% of the nodes at the same time, and when the nodes in the entire system When the number reaches a certain level and is distributed all over the world, data tampering becomes impractical.
In addition, the biggest advantage of blockchain in the medical field is the complex custody authority of multiple private keys. For example, through smart contract technology, a single case can be set to allocate multiple private keys, and certain rules can be formulated for data access. Whether doctors, nurses, or patients themselves, they need to be authorized by the contract. For example, only when multiple private keys are held The key can only be opened by the person present at the same time. Or combined with GIS data, when you are in a certain hospital, the doctors of that hospital can read your medical record information. Even combined with time information, when in a certain period of treatment, the nurse can get your information.
In the healthcare industry, blockchain is beginning to show its potential. Industry authorities, governments, and the global technology community are all excited about the potential of blockchain. However, the healthcare industry needs to work together to create a blockchain alliance, promote cooperation, and establish a standard or framework for large-scale blockchain applications in the entire industry in the future.
Although everyone is rejoicing for blockchain at the moment, we need to truly grasp this technology, decode its technology maturity curve, and its application in the healthcare industry. We believe that after blockchain technology enters the medical field, it will first affect traditional medical care in the following five aspects:
1. Clinical health data exchange and interoperability capabilities:
When we talk about blockchain and healthcare, data exchange is obviously the first topic that comes to mind. The blockchain-based health IT system can solve many technical problems, including health data interoperability, data integrity, security, portable user data and so on. Most importantly, the blockchain can ensure the security of the data exchange system through encryption and prevent data from being modified. At the same time, users can view the patient’s historical data and user data at any time, eliminating the trouble of data adjustment. Not long ago, the cooperation between the data-centric security company Guardtime and the Estonian eHealth Foundation is a classic example of the use of blockchain technology. The two companies work together, hoping to use Guardtime’s keyless signature infrastructure (KSI) to protect 1 million Estonia Citizen’s health data.
1. Insurance claims and bill management:
It is estimated that 5%-10% of medical and health expenditures are gray, either due to excessive billing, or random projects. For example, in the United States alone, the gray medical income in 2016 reached 30 million US dollars. The blockchain-based system can solve this gray charging problem. The blockchain system can automate most billing and payment procedures, thereby skipping the middleman, reducing administrative costs, and saving time for both patients and medical institutions. In addition, the blockchain can also solve the large-scale logistics information tracking problem in RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance). Not long ago, Gem Health, an enterprise blockchain application platform developer, established a cooperation with Capital One to jointly develop a blockchain-based healthcare claims management solution.
1. The integrity of the drug supply chain and the source of drugs:
According to industry estimates, global pharmaceutical companies lose US$200 billion each year due to the problem of counterfeit drugs. In developing countries, 30% of the drugs on the market are fake drugs. If the blockchain system is adopted, the whole process of medicines starting from the supply chain and flowing into the hands of individual consumers can be guaranteed. In addition, other functions such as private keys and smart contracts can also prove that the manufacturer and source of the drug can be identified at any stage of drug sales. For example, a company called iSolve LCC is currently cooperating with multiple pharmaceutical/biomedical companies to promote its ADLT (Advanced Digital Ledger Technology) blockchain solution to better achieve the integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain.
1. Medical clinical trials and population health research:
It is estimated that 50% of clinical trials are not reported, and researchers have failed to provide their findings. This is a serious safety hazard for patients, and there is also a knowledge gap in front of health care company shareholders and health policy makers. Blockchain technology can provide real-time traceable clinical trial records, research reports and results, and these data are immutable, which creates the possibility to solve the problems of result exchange, data detection and selective reporting, thereby reducing the number of clinical trial records Of fraud and errors. Furthermore, in the fields of precision medicine and population health management, the blockchain system can also promote a high degree of collaboration between clinical trial personnel and researchers.
1. Network security and healthcare Internet of Things:
A report by Protenu Breach Barometer shows that in 2016, there were 450 health data leaks worldwide, affecting more than 27 million patients. Nearly 43% of data breaches are caused by insiders, and 27% are due to hacker attacks and ransomware. With the current rapid development of connected health equipment, IT companies will be unable to support the growth of the IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) ecosystem. By 2020, the global healthcare IoT devices are expected to reach 20-30 billion units. How to ensure that the data of these devices will not be invaded, blockchain technology is the best solution. It can provide data interoperability between devices while ensuring security, privacy and reliability. Currently, companies such as Telstra (User Biometrics and Smart Home), IBM (Cognitive Internet of Things), and Tierion (Preventive Maintenance of Industrial Medical Devices) are actively conducting research and development on the above use cases.
Introduction to several major application scenarios of blockchain in the medical industry
1. Electronic Health Record (EHR)
In medical care, the main application of blockchain is the preservation of personal medical records, which can be understood as electronic medical records on the blockchain. If you think of the medical record as a ledger, it is originally in the hands of various hospitals, and the patients themselves do not, so the patients have no way to obtain their own medical records and historical information, which will cause great trouble for the patients to seek medical treatment. , Because the doctor can’t understand your medical history in detail.
But now if blockchain technology can be used to save, there will be personal medical history data. Whether it’s going to a doctor or planning your own health, there will be historical data available for use, and the true master of this data It is the patient himself, not a hospital or third-party agency.
1.DNA wallet
Genetic and medical data can be stored securely using blockchain technology and obtained through the use of private keys, which will form a DNA wallet. This allows medical and health service providers to safely share and count patient data and help pharmaceutical companies develop drugs more efficiently. And this model is gradually being established.
1. Bitcoin payment
The development of blockchain technology has promoted Bitcoin payments, giving patients more options for insurance payments. Although this also depends on the development of Bitcoin in the market, insurance companies that provide this approach also have a greater advantage over competitors. For health insurance companies, blockchain is being established as a part of financial services.
1. Anti-counterfeiting of medicines
Similar to the coded anti-counterfeiting technology, for drugs that use blockchain technology to prevent counterfeiting, there is a surface that can be scraped off on the surface of the drug packaging box, and a special verification label is underneath, which is in contrast to the blockchain. Ensure the legality of drugs.
1. Protein folding
Because the protein folding process is very fast, Stanford University previously relied on very expensive supercomputers to simulate the protein folding process. This method is obviously expensive and has a single point of failure. By using blockchain, they can choose to use a huge distributed network for high-speed computing. This example will greatly attract other companies that use expensive supercomputers.
Case analysis blockchain + medical
1. Factom (Notarization Pass)
Factom is a start-up company dedicated to providing data management and data recording solutions based on the Bitcoin blockchain. It is currently exploring secure medical records and audit trail solutions with the paramedic company HealthNautica. They use data encryption to write to the Bitcoin blockchain and use time stamps to ensure the accuracy of the data. HealthNautica hopes to use this solution to improve the efficiency of compensation processing and ensure the certainty that records cannot be tampered with.
1. Philips Medical
Philips Medical is one of the world’s three major medical device giants (General Electric, Philips, Siemens), focusing on the operation of connecting hundreds of millions of medical devices worldwide. According to Aron Laeven, head of Philips’ global innovation IT, “We are exploring the block The application of the chain in the medical care field, we believe that this technology is very suitable for this industry.”
In October 2015, Philips and Tierion reached a cooperation, hoping to change the current medical conditions of patients. Tierion is a blockchain startup that specializes in data collection and recording. It has built a data storage and verification platform through this technology. Philips Medical attaches great importance to patient feedback, so it hopes to use the innovative solution provided by Tierion to realize real-time monitoring of patient health information, that is, to provide a decentralized real-time information monitoring solution to ensure information security.
1. Estonia
Although Estonia is only a small country in the Baltic Sea, it is ahead of many countries in terms of blockchain investment and application. It has been using blockchain for residents’ identity verification at a very early stage. In March of this year, Estonia announced the launch of a blockchain-based medical and health file security project. At the same time, the Estonian Electronic Health Foundation announced a cooperation with data security startup Guardtime to use blockchain to ensure the security of 1 million patients’ medical records and integrate them With Guardtime’s Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI) and its own Oracle data engine, it can quickly view patient cases in real time.
At present, the global medical market share is about 1.057 trillion US dollars. In addition to the data storage and verification of the above-mentioned medical information, blockchain technology also brings many opportunities to improve existing medical processes and business models. It can be said that there are still many imperfections in our current medical technology. Some high-tech has not been fully used in the tracking, diagnosis and treatment of the medical field. If various high-techs can be integrated through blockchain technology , Then the medical industry will usher in a huge change.
