Fall 2017 issue of Horizons

INDUSTRY UPDATE HEALTHCARE

Healthcare’s Biggest Distruptor: Blockchain & EHR Interoperability by Josh Leesmann

A s patients and regulators press for better care at lower costs, the healthcare system appears to be poised to experience a dramatic digital disruption. In particular, as the industry moves toward outcome-based reimbursements, the need for a holistic patient picture will become increasingly important. This will require a stronger, more integrated information system to manage and maintain health data. Blockchain is poised to not only evolve how we do business, but also to solve a particularly pesky problem in healthcare — electronic health record (EHR) interoperability.

Broadly speaking, blockchain is a mechanism that acts as a robust, decentralized list of transactions or a “network ledger.” The technology can be utilized to administer transactions and contracts and maintain a transparent record of it in its entirety. In other words, it is a simple, secure and decentralized accounting system. Why is this a potential solution for sharing sensitive health data? The power and promise of blockchain technology is that instead of keeping a ledger on a server in a building, the entire ledger of encrypted data is kept simultaneously by all users on the blockchain network (making it extremely difficult to hack or change).

28 Healthcare’s Biggest Distruptor: Blockchain & EHR Interoperability