Blockchain
Federal officials are working on policy about the emerging technology deliberately, helping to set expectations for near- and medium-term healthcare applications.
Amazon, Change Healthcare and Walmart all made moves worth watching as we head into 2019.
Emily Vaughn, product development director of Change Healthcare, and Tim Dunlevy, VP of engineering at PokitDok, share what they think is the first wave of use cases and talk about the process of going from private to public blockchain networks.
Abel Kho, director of the Center for Health Information Partnerships at Northwestern University and co-founder of Health Data Link, says that to make the most of blockchain technology, the issue of data fragmentation needs to be addressed.
Could distributed ledger technology offer the promise of real-time EHR updates, seamless interoperability and protection from ransomware?
European Union Blockchain Observatory & Forum, says that, while there are tensions and some uncertainty about how to protect data and use blockchain under GDPR, there are still ways to accomplish it.
Tamper-proof distributed ledger tech helps with efficiency, security, integrity and visibility of pharmacy and other supply chain data. And because it doesn't necessarily involve PHI, it may be a logical place for hospitals to start exploring.
While interoperability and cybersecurity challenges persist and EHRs underwhelm, distributed ledger technology is so hyped because of the hopes for what it might mean in the future.
Attorneys offer their perspective on the privacy and compliance issues faced by the technology and how it squares, or not, with laws such as HIPAA and GDPR.
Recently the first digital currency – redeemable for U.S. dollars – was deposited in physicians’ wallets for improving care and patient satisfaction.