The UK’s Mental Capacity Act of 2005 promotes personal agency in medical decision-making where possible. The act respects autonomy while considering individual capacity and circumstance. But of course, in cases of sudden accidents or incapacitating medical conditions, a patient may lack the ability to make decisions regarding their care and the decision-making power falls to the next of kin.

This can put a significant emotional burden on the next of kin, particularly when the health preferences of loved ones are unknown. Such situations can result in emotionally charged choices, sometimes even leading to family disagreements, a scenario that could potentially be avoided if individuals had an easier way to share their care preferences.

In turn, this can create challenges for healthcare professionals who are relying on the care preferences being shared with them so that they can take the right course of action. And, of course, the most concerning risk is that the personal wishes of the patient aren’t followed.

Privacy vs Access

When thinking about preparing for the future, in a medical sense, there can be a mental ‘tug of war’ between keeping medical preferences private vs providing potential caregivers with access. Sharing end-of-life medical preferences, for example, can cause emotional distress to loved ones, which an individual may wish to avoid until absolutely necessary. And of course, there’s always the chance that our preferences may change, which could cause confusion and lead to disagreements.

The common saying that ‘timing is crucial’ rings true when sharing preferences about care. That’s why it’s critical that people prepare their medical documentation and guidance around their care wishes, so their loved one have the information to hand when they need to make those decisions.

A new approach to digitalise the sharing of one’s medical preferences post-incapacitation involves a digital trustee process. Saving these important documents down in a secure file, the trustee release control process only grants the designated beneficiaries access when a trustee confirms that the original owner of the document is incapacitated, and the information needs to be transferred over.

At its heart, this technology empowers individuals to distribute their private health information when others need to make informed decisions regarding their care. This affords people control over their private healthcare information, which many of us prefer even when it comes to our closest friends and family members.

Empowerment through digital trustee planning

In a whirlwind of daily activities, thinking about the future – particularly our future health or lack thereof often takes a backseat. Take the fact that just 44% of Brits currently have a Will. Many of us do not take the time to plan for what happens if and when we become ill or pass away.

But of course, incapacitation is rarely anticipated. So, embracing this sobering truth and selecting a strategy that communicates health-related decisions to next of kin can empower all of those involved in decisions making.

The digital trustee process serves as a way of arming loved ones when they potentially need to make important medical decisions in the unfortunate circumstance that their next of kin falls ill or has an accident. And in contrast to writing such wishes on paper notes, for instance, which can get lost or might be hard to access when needed –  this encrypted approach makes the process secure and seamless.

Technology in the healthcare industry has improved numerous medical procedures, but people and their families should also think about how they can use it to prepare for the moments when they will need to give people more control over their healthcare decisions.

By solving the privacy vs accessibility dilemma when it comes to personal healthcare data, it’s possible to imagine a future where the use of the digital trustee process becomes the norm and where one’s medical preferences can be securely and privately stored, then shared. In this vision for the future, we will also be able to offer a greater sense of dignity to those in need of care.

About the author

Paul Rossini is the CEO and Co-Founder of AssetPass, the world’s leading digital asset platform. Paul has over 14 years of experience as a pioneer in the crypto space and as a leading innovator for Digital Legacy, having built the first ever digital trustee company back in 2009. AssetPass is transforming digital asset recovery and digital legacy management with an end-to-end encrypted platform with its unique trustee release control process (TRCP) that empowers individuals to pass on their digital assets securely and privately to beneficiaries.

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Lessons from the pandemic

The survey, conducted by Dassault Systèmes, suggests that the COVID pandemic has shed light on many inefficiencies in the life sciences sector. According to the survey: 70% of companies admitted to relying on outdated processes, which prevented them from collaborating remotely during the pandemic. Worse still, 62% even struggled to access COVID-19 research due to these outdated processes. This revelation had a stark impact on the future of the sector amid a global crisis, with almost three in four (73%) companies admitting they struggled to innovate due to the pandemic. A similar proportion (70%) struggled to upskill its workforce, creating additional pressure on an industry that needed to operate faster and more seamlessly than ever before.

While the industry took drastic steps to better address the COVID-19 crisis, these outdated processes have also impacted the industry’s ability to improve patient outcomes outside of the pandemic. Most respondents had to postpone R&D efforts into other treatments to focus on COVID-19 (74%), the launch of new treatments and products (69%), or research into sustainable materials (70%). To better manage its new mandate to deliver better patient care at a faster pace than ever before, and across a wider range of disciplines than previously, the industry needs to address three fundamental challenges: business and operating models, product innovation, and upskilling people.

The role of data in supporting the industry’s move to a sustainable future

As a result of these outdated processes, the majority of respondents have had to postpone implementing their sustainability goals (70%); by contrast, the pandemic has increased the amount of waste their organisation produces (70%).

Despite this, becoming net zero remains a strategic priority for most organisations (69%), following increased pressure to improve the industry’s sustainability credentials and ambitious government goals to drastically reduce the country’s emissions by 2050.

To address this, the industry needs access to data to better assess its current practices and devise strategies to become more sustainable. Yet, three in four (77%) companies surveyed admit they lack data to evaluate their carbon footprint accurately. A similar proportion (77%) recognises it needs a centralised data management solution across its entire supply chain to get a holistic picture of the emissions its operations create. 

The case for virtual twin

In light of the pandemic, a majority of the industry has quickly adopted solutions to improve digital collaboration, such as virtual twins (71%). Virtual twins are a set of digital tools enabling users to collaborate, access swathes of data and create virtual models and simulations of products to test out hypotheses – from testing out a treatment on a virtual model of an organ such as a heart, to running entire clinical trials without the need for placebos – and simplify information sharing among departments and third parties, including regulatory offices and government bodies to speed up time to market for new treatments. These solutions are already playing an integral part in the clinical trials for COVID-19, and are increasingly being used to provide R&D teams with data to support future research.

Looking to the world post-pandemic, virtual twins will not only play a part in improving collaboration, but also underpin the industry’s effort to become more sustainable. Respondents to the survey consider that they are a critical technology required to achieve their business’ net zero carbon goals, alongside augmented and virtual reality (51%), automation (44%), the Internet of Things (39%) and Cloud Computing (35%).

By removing the need for physical prototypes, virtual twins enable companies to reduce their waste and carbon emissions. This provides companies with more effective methods to improve the lifecycle of their products and provides an advantage to avoid losing customers to more environmentally-savvy competitors. As a result of this unique approach to innovation and operating models, 70% of respondents see virtual twins as integral to achieving a carbon neutral world by 2050.

Richard Coxon, Director, Life Sciences at Dassault Systèmes, said: “The pandemic was a wakeup call for the life sciences industry: while it had been progressively moving to digital ways of working, most operations were still done in person in a physical lab until governments enforced lockdowns. Overnight, entire companies had to learn to work remotely, while delivering critical support to patients and dealing with the biggest pandemic since the Spanish flu at the start of the 20^th century. This shift to a completely digital way of working was unprecedented and the industry had to choose its battles. Unfortunately, this meant that many sustainable initiatives had to be put on hold to provide critical support to patients – and do it fast.”

He continued: “We now have vaccines being rolled out all over the world, which means that the industry can start tackling the remainder of its challenges – starting with ensuring it creates a sustainable environment that supports innovation, enabling workers to develop new skills while reducing the sector’s impact on the planet. The need for better digital solutions during the pandemic has fast tracked the adoption of virtual twins and shown life sciences professionals all over the world how they could innovate, support patients and each other faster and in a more environmentally-conscious way. As we look to a world post-COVID, it’s clear that the industry has turned to a new chapter – one where products, people and the planet are in symbiosis, underpinned by digital tools and strategies, including virtual twins.”

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Immunity passports aim to link an individual’s identity with their COVID-19 test status, opening up a way out of lockdown restrictions for those that are proven to be immune to the disease. This means that any immunity passport would rely on antibody tests – which are intended to show whether someone has recovered from the infection – to then provide certification that a person is immune and cannot catch the virus again.

By the very nature of COVID-related immunity passports, they are likely to contain sensitive and personal health data. This has made them a hot topic when it comes to data privacy, with many concerned about how the data will be stored and who will have access to the data. This is where blockchain – a decentralising technology typically associated with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency – can be used to ensure data governance and that user privacy will not be compromised.

René Seifert, Co-Head at TrueProfile.io, explained: “A blockchain-enabled digital immunity passport could be viable if end-users provide proof of ID before testing and a permanent ‘digital fingerprint’ of the certificate is placed on the blockchain, which is used by a verifier, such as an employer, to check authenticity. Crucially, as test results are stored as a ‘fingerprint’, this offers a form of encryption and makes sure that the digital certificate provided to the end-user is secure and tamper-proof by design, which means it is unalterably linked to their identity. For those more concerned about the data security, as each ‘fingerprint’ is individual and does not reveal any information about whom the document belongs to, it also safeguards the information it contains.

“The fundamental assumption in blockchain is that a centralised data monitoring or validation is not required among a network of distributed databases, because some pre-agreement about data validation has been conducted. This makes it ideal for the immunity passport use-case, as no central party has control over its content, giving the end-user complete control of how their health data is being used. Utilising this technology could also alleviate concerns over a wider surveillance infrastructure (including a contact tracing app) that will collect data beyond the purposes of determining people who are potentially immune to COVID-19. Ultimately, implementing this technology into such an important and urgent issue would likely bring it into the mainstream consciousness and out of the shadow of Bitcoin and the world of cryptocurrency.”

Despite the privacy guarantees that a blockchain-enabled immunity passport can afford, René also believes that a strong dose of caution needs to be kept in mind before developers get ahead of themselves. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has consistently warned about a lack of scientific evidence for COVID-19 immunity, saying those who wrongly believe themselves to be immune could get reinfected or transmit the disease further. For René, this has the potential to derail the concept of digital immunity passports entirely.

He concluded: “At present, the biggest barrier to immunity passports is the testing itself. Firstly, immunity tests need to possess higher levels of sensitivity and specificity, which are essential measures to express the rate of false negatives and false positives of a result. More worryingly, due to the novelty of the disease, scientists don’t have enough data on the body’s immune responses. This means that we simply don’t know how long someone remains immune to COVID-19 – or even if they can become immune at all in the case of asymptomatic patients.

“As such, a more sensible line of action would be to follow the science. For a blockchain-enabled immunity passport to truly work effectively and be taken seriously, it is crucial that COVID-19 tests not only have high levels of sensitivity and specificity, but any antibody test is proven to show that end-users cannot get infected again. However, this should not mean that governments and healthcare bodies abandon the development of blockchain-enabled immunity passports altogether, as the time may come when this sort of technology could be highly effective and help keep citizen health data secure and decentralised.”

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The NHS’s ambitions for digital technology

Digitally enabled care will go ‘mainstream’ across the NHS – that is the bold, raw commitment set out in the NHS Long Term Plan (January 2019). The Plan’s ambition for the service is palpable, with technological advances expected to provide new possibilities for prevention, care and treatment.

The Long Term Plan builds on some of the broad themes set out in The Future of Healthcare (October 2018), Matt Hancock’s, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, vision that the NHS will offer a ‘digital first’ approach to enable patients to communicate with clinicians and therapists and use data to develop more sophisticated ways of monitoring patients remotely.

Data is a significant asset to the NHS, as the medical data of over 65 million people is, collectively, a dataset with incredible potential. Yet, there are currently significant practical issues with data sharing. The Long Term Plan recognises that the starting point for patients and staff is interoperability of data and systems with technology standards mandated and rigorously enforced.

The Future of Healthcare committed to setting ‘national open standards for data, interoperability, privacy and confidentiality, real-time data access, cyber security and access rules’.  So far, we have the new Code of Conduct for Data-driven Health and Care Technology (February 2019) which promotes the use of open standards when collecting and extracting data from information technology systems.

Blockchain in healthcare

Early reports about blockchain were dominated by references to cryptocurrency, which made it seem like the only application for the technology would be financial markets. But, at its heart, blockchain is about trust. Put simply, it is a distributed ledger that cannot be corrupted or changed without disrupting the chain in that process. It therefore allows people who don’t know each other to collaborate, to share information, within trustworthy environments. There are few places and sectors this is needed more than in health care.

Truu, for example, has adopted the technology as a means to enable a new style of trusted relationship between individuals and organisations. Using distributed ledger technology, Truu has developed a way for medical employees to be able to prove who they are instantly, securely and digitally, avoiding the need for long delays due to administrative burdens and increasing levels of trust.

Blockchain for medical records

Blockchain technology offers a new model for electronic health information exchanges. According to a Deloitte report, capitalising on this technology has the potential to connect fragmented systems and in the long term, a nationwide blockchain network for electronic medical records may improve efficiencies and support better health outcomes for patients.

A permissioned ledger for medical data, which patients could control form their mobile phones, has the potential to transform the relationship patients have with their health records. Using the technology, individuals would stay in control of and have access to their personal health records and could grant or deny permission for others to access it, whether they be clinicians, researchers or even commercial organisations. This places patients at the centre of their own health and care in a technological sense and therefore echoes the aspirations of the Long Term Plan for the NHS to deliver more person-centred care.

 Organisations such as Medicalchain and Dovetail Lab have developed patient centred solutions based on distributed ledger technology.

Medicalchain is a decentralised platform that enables secure, fast and transparent exchange and usage of medical data. It uses blockchain technology to create a user-focused electronic health record and maintain a single true version of the user’s data. Their app MyClinic.com allows patients to take full control of their healthcare records through blockchain technology and provides access to flexible telemedicine services. The company plans to “put everyone in control of their health records and be a partner in their healthcare management”.

Dovetail Lab has harnessed distributed ledger technology to verify identity, store consent and create tamper-proof audit records of every data exchange. Their solution is described as the ‘software glue’ that sits between the different technologies and allows them to talk to each other but only if the patient gives their consent.

Elsewhere in the world, countries are embracing the technology at a national level. Estonia and Dubai are two such countries that are demonstrating how blockchain can facilitate secure and reliable sharing of electronic health records among healthcare stakeholders, including making interactions more efficient. The Estonia e-Health Foundation is developing a blockchain-based system that will secure the medical records of more than 1 million patients – the system has been designed to enable entry of new data and keeps the records secure from any alteration. Patient empowerment, transparency and improved dialogue between stakeholders are just a few of the benefits the technology has to offer.

But there are operational challenges to blockchain

The public are, rightly, protective over their personal information, not least their health records. As a digital mechanism for creating trust, blockchain would appear to be the perfect solution for securely sharing health records. However, while the technology creates trust, there is poor public trust in the blockchain. Many people’s only experience of blockchain is in relation to cryptocurrency which has a poor reputation for its links to criminal organisations, the Dark Web and fraudulent transactions. For this reason, some organisations who use blockchain have started to distance themselves from the technology in their marketing and focus more on their practical solution.

Many of the key benefits of blockchain: immutability, anonymity, and decentralised control can make it difficult for the technology to comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR). Some of these benefits can, however, be realised without storing health records on the blockchain itself. Indeed holding medical records on the blockchain would be hugely inefficient given the size of the data! One solution is to store most of the personal data “off chain”, usually on the existing EHR system, with the technology being used as a key to access the information and record the changes made.

There is a huge amount of hype around blockchain which might fuel the negative feeling. However, if we focus on the technology itself we can see the benefits in healthcare, particularly in secure access to medical information. Rather than disruptive, we need to see it as a fundamental technology.

So, will blockchain revolutionise healthcare?

In short, blockchain should not be seen as the magic bullet for a unified electronic health records system. But it could be the tool that provides trust, data integrity and control – all issues that patients have raised as concerns they have with their health data being shared.

That then opens up the huge possibilities that can be achieved by being able to share health data including those aims sited in the Long Term Plan.

By Charlotte Lewis, Senior Associate, Mills & Reeve

Sources

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Making this process more efficient and cost-effective could save billions of dollars, and blockchain is one of the technologies that could potentially deliver this change. So, it’s no wonder that the market value of blockchain tech in healthcare is set to reach $5.61 billion by 2025.

The promise of simpler and faster clinical trials

Any effort to improve the life sciences and healthcare industry usually revolves around patient data. Drug developers, doctors, and government agencies all produce and store valuable information, whether it’s clinical trials data or healthcare records. But these vast datasets are scattered and unsynchronized due to a lack of trusted data-sharing mechanisms. Ted Mlynar, a partner at the international law firm Hogan Lovell, suggests turning to blockchain instead. With its distributed ledger system and tamper-proof transactions, this technology could improve healthcare in many ways.

Researchers could, for instance, place the structure and protocols of clinical trials on blockchain so that third parties, such as regulators, could verify whether the original design was followed. Furthermore, timestamped blockchain transactions can prove that drug developers didn’t change the analysis mid-trial, while multiple parties like managers, marketers, and physicians could access the information in real time. And once the study is completed, the verifiable audit trail could be submitted to regulators and researchers that want to reproduce the study. This is just a glimpse of the many ways in which blockchain could streamline and simplify clinical trials that account for around 20 percent of drug development costs.

Giving patients ownership over their medical records

Blockchain-based medical records are yet another way in which healthcare can be improved. Instead of having medical data centralized at the level of corporations or hospitals, it could be stored in blockchain with patients approving who can access it. Patients could also expand their medical data with additional information on their genetic profile, demographic status, and potentially harmful behavior to enable doctors to deliver fully personalized care.

For instance, Greg Matthews, an expert on digital trends in healthcare, argues that “The dream of personalized medicine looked like an almost-insurmountable problem 10 years ago because of technical challenges in linking data types and using them to find patterns across massive amounts of data.” As he explains, “Blockchain could be at the foundation of the solution, with the patient having ultimate control over their data and how it’s used”.

Challenges on the road ahead

The adoption of blockchain, however, might be slowed down due to regulatory and data privacy concerns. For example, countries have various rules on how medical data can be secured, stored, and who can access it. Any major change in that aspect would require government approval. Besides that, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies might be reluctant to share clinical trials data that they perceive as trade secrets and intellectual property. One way to address this challenge, as Mlynar explains, is to develop “common data standards that can be applied broadly”.

Blockchain solutions are tempting, and more than 60 percent of executives in health organizations claim they’re planning to implement them, although most are unsure how to actually go about that. Nevertheless, a future in which blockchain could make drugs cheaper and medical systems more efficient is very much within our reach.

Author: Richard van Hooijdonk

Trendwatcher, futurist and international keynote speaker Richard van Hooijdonk takes you to an inspiring future that will dramatically change the way we live, work and do business. His inspiration sessions have been attended by over 420,000 people. Richard is a regular guest at radio and television programs. With his international research team, he investigates tech trends like robotics, drone technology, autonomous transport systems, Internet of Things, biotech, nanotech, neurotech, blockchain, 3D and 4D printing as well as augmented and virtual reality and their impact on various industries. Findings are published weekly in the form of compelling articles, e-books and white papers.

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The Chain of Custody platform (patent pending) is called 4Trust and utilises a proprietary combination of technologies under license from DocuChain Limited.  4Trust incorporates a range of technologies from DocuChain and its constituent members: Uqudo (identity and access management), NXP (NFC integrated circuits), Qadre (Plug blockchain infrastructure) and Trotec (laser engraving specialist).

The TALL Group of Companies, the UK leader in the provision of secure paper and electronic payment solutions, is leading the launch of the 4Trust platform as the exclusive licensee in the UK and Ireland – and the founding member of DocuChain’s 4Trust Alliance, a global partnership of 4Trust licensees.

Organisations within the health sector using the 4Trust Chain of Custody platform will obtain a specially-crafted smart polymer document produced by the TALL Group, which provides the physical, tangible record of the transaction, whose provenance can be authenticated in an immutable, external blockchain record. The document, described as a SmartPolymer Artifact, incorporates sophisticated fraud prevention features such as laser engraved images, encrypted QR Codes and embedded intelligence in the form of NFC (near-field communications) integrated circuits, which link the certificate to the digital record of the transaction or entitlements in question held in blockchain. The provenance of the creation of both the Artifact and its related metadata (Assets and Activities including entitlements and privileges) are then stored securely in the 4Trust Chain of Custody. This correlation between the physical and digital records creates a singular “Chain of Custody” that can be validated in real-time using mobile and desktop applications that are downloadable with every Artifact produced.

Philip Leone, Founder and CEO of DocuChain, said: “Legacy chains of custody are flawed and certainly not trustworthy and the cost to organisations operating in the health sector are unacceptable and possibly life threatening! Our architecture provides four elements – two physical and two logical – which build upon existing document and trust systems, with authentications being conducted in real-time using Android, iOS and Windows apps. 4Trust’s innovative platform delivers and an immutable “Chain of Custody” for business performance, relationship management, governance, entitlement management and asset custodial services. Working with the TALL team has been very gratifying – they understand the dynamics and value of custody and how real time authentications engender trust, protect and value Identity, and restore sorely needed equities to global transaction domains.”

Martin Ruda, Group Managing Director of the TALL Group of Companies, said: “As the first licensee of the DocuChain Chain of Custody platform, the TALL Group will lead the UK’s health sector into a new era of indisputable provenance that can be authenticated in real-time, thereby helping health authorities and professionals to drive efficiency and achieve cost savings. We are extremely proud to have played a key role in the development of this important and ambitious solution, which we are sure will help to shape the future of how vital ownership and provenance information and records are stored and validated.

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Elevate Health is developing a platform focused on the behavioural health space, aiming to facilitate a number of cost-reducing reward solutions for healthcare providers, insurers, health authorities, families and employers through a range of technological innovations including mobile apps, wearable devices, smart contracts and reward tokens.

The co-founders of Elevate include Simon Lewis, Sid Bouziane and Alastair Mordey, the team behind The Cabin Addiction Services Group founded in Thailand in 2009, which grew to become the largest addiction and behavioural healthcare group in Asia, before increasing its presence globally. In 2017, The Cabin Group had revenues of over US$9 million and was sold to a private equity investment group for a valuation of US$40 million.

Simon Lewis co-founder of Elevate Health commented; “Elevate Health marries blockchain technology with cutting edge behavioral healthcare best practices. These issues are currently very topical which puts Elevate at the vanguard of providing solutions for intransigent health issues. We are very much looking forward to working with Coinsilium who share our enthusiasm and vision and we are confident that Coinsilium, with their high industry profile and reputation, will provide invaluable support as we build our business.”

The team aims to tackle some of the world’s most pressing health problems such as obesity and smoking which were reported to have a combined cost to the global economy of US$2 trillion in 2016.The use of blockchain coupled with other cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, form the building blocks of a remotely managed and global incentive platform for health improvement.

Coinsilium CEO Eddy Travia commented; “We have seen several blockchain projects looking to address healthcare related issues, however Elevate’s original approach of tackling health threats and improving lifestyle and health standards on a global scale, combined with the teams highly successful track record, is a clear differentiator for us. We also see significant opportunities for enterprise-level stakeholders, such as insurance companies and healthcare service providers, to enhance their offering by joining the Elevate platform, and we look forward to working closely with this talented team to help them achieve their goals.”

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What is the Blockchain Technology?

As digitalization of all industries has started to expand within a decade, the blockchain entered the global market at the end of 2016 (although in fact it was invented back in 2008, but not widely used). It has touched a wide number of industries bound with technology, information technologies, and AI.

The concept of the blockchain itself is simple, it is a network of blocks that is continuously growing and changing, adapting to the specific industry needs and their peculiarities. The blockchain is based on the distributed ledgers which contain information or facts. In other words, a block is a record of new transactions (medical data like medical device logs, patient vitals, a temperature of medicinal products during shipment, or the location of cryptocurrency). When the new block is completed, it is added to the chain of previously created blocks. In such a way, a huge system of blocks with facts is created, where information is stored and can be accessed anytime.

Another possibility of blockchain technology is the Smart Contract that is able to perform specific actions with the data stored in the blocks, for example, search for the date of record or transactions and determine the upcoming actions that might take place. In this way, smart contracts help to exchange money, property or shares via blockchain. They automatically define the rules and penalties for each agreement and enforce obligations.

When it comes to measuring blockchain technology on a global scale, we must point out that from the time it was used to support Bitcoin and the rise of cryptocurrency in 2017 that followed, blockchain technology has influenced many industries, not only the crypto world. The blockchain-related products and services market is expected to reach $7.7 billion by 2022, which is $242 million more from last year’s prediction.

In the financial sphere, banks use the blockchain as a decentralized ledger for more secure and faster transactions.

In the information technology industry, blockchain is used as a basis for digital storages, software programs, data platforms etc. The profession of the blockchain developer is gaining popularity, while more and more companies tend to use the technology in their business.

Moreover, blockchain will alter the entire approach in consulting, research, analysis, and forecasting. Global decentralized prediction markets are already in process of creation.

In the energy industry, companies are using blockchain to implement more efficient peer-to-peer distribution of electrical energy. For example, there are startups that allow people to generate their own electricity and sell it directly to neighbors.

What Has Blockchain Changed in Healthcare

Healthcare and medicine is also undergoing changes due to the blockchain. The classical technology used in healthcare is centralized. However, the sphere is now experiencing benefits of the decentralized system as well. For example, storing of various medicine-related data has become more secure due to blockchain.  Moreover, many blockchain healthcare software providers have already entered the healthcare market.

Improvements of the medicine manufacturing process and control are also blockchain related now. As an area of continuous concern, blockchain technology offers a way to strengthen the process by recording & storing the parameters and delivering an auditable trail of production and shipment with automated decisions.

There are many ways how blockchain and healthcare are connected and can interact. In terms of temperature control, that is vital for pharmaceutical products – as they should be stored under a specific temperature range which is essential to keep across warehouse, shipment, and dispensing – this information should be tracked throughout the whole supply chain with temperature loggers transmitting the temperature history to a blockchain, where Smart Contracts determine the stability of the product.

The blockchain is also already used for file transfers in clinical trials, patients data and pharmaceutical history storage, creation and maintenance of the blockchain network with patients, physicians, and payers with further determination of CMN by means of Smart Contracts, thus avoiding intermediation.

The Most Innovative Blockchain Projects in Healthcare

Among the most innovative projects involving blockchain for healthcare, there are many blockchain healthcare startups, the most prominent of them are as following:

• MedRec, saves the digital family history of medical records by means of the blockchain.
• The MediLedger uses blockchain to strengthen the track-and-trace capabilities for prescription medicine. Which is more, it allows users to create an interoperable system for identification and tracking specific prescription drugs, this meeting law and operational needs of the industry.
• ConnectingCare is a blockchain based platform for providers together from different clinical organizations to access the same data for shared patients. This project is credible and adoptable by healthcare industry that will boost the development of the healthcare data marketplace.
• Robomed Network is a blockchain based medical network aimed to provide the most effective medical care. It will connect patients and healthcare service providers by means of Smart Contracts. It is expected to boost the shift of healthcare to value-based care (when a patient pays for results instead of paying for procedures). Robomed already has nearly 9,000 patients and 30,500 services.

Regarding the use of technology in healthcare in the near future, blockchain will become one of the crucial drivers along with IoT and machine learning to trigger new and more effective digital processes. It will revolutionize healthcare. In fact, it has already started to do so. With the development and prevalence of blockchain technology, it will become easier to convince healthcare providers to deploy the technology for the smart storing of data, different transactions, temperature and complex software-driven medical appliances control, patient care and research.

Conclusion

Due to the rapid development of blockchain, the healthcare industry has already become blockchain-oriented with many companies in the sphere tending to implement it within their business. This includes not only pharmaceutical companies but also hospitals and healthcare institutions where the use of blockchain will lead to faster and more efficient problem-solving.

Article written by Mobilunity

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Medicalchain plans to put everyone in control of their health records and be a partner in their healthcare management. The Groves group is the perfect partner for this pilot, consisting of four GP practices, supporting over 30,000 registered patients and 1,000 private patient families.

The pilot is the first application for Medicalchain’s platform that allows patients to take full control of their healthcare records through blockchain technology and will provide access to flexible telemedicine services.

The pilot, which commences in July 2018, will allow Medicalchain to gather feedback from doctors and patients to refine its platform and continue development ahead of its global launch. Groves’ registered patients will be able to create a free wallet which will hold and manage access to their health records. GP video consultations will also be available to patients, offering the flexibility to see their doctor at a time and place suited to their needs. The platform will then give patients the option to pay for services using cryptocurrency, with users being incentivised to pay for telemedicine services with Medicalchain’s MedTokens.

“This is a unique opportunity to work with the leaders in blockchain for healthcare and offer our patients cutting-edge technology. We believe that by empowering people to choose how they access healthcare, we can reduce the burden on public health services. The goal is to improve health services, not only in the UK but across the world, and with Medicalchain we believe we can be a part of that.” said Dr Vince Grippaudo, Senior Partner at The Groves.

Details of the pilot project are currently being refined by both parties with further information due to be announced in the coming weeks.

“I would like to thank The Groves Medical Group for their support and commitment to this project and applaud them for being leaders and pioneers in modern-day healthcare. I would also like to thank our community for their continued support and our team here at Medicalchain who have worked tirelessly to perfect the platform and secure this partnership.” says CEO and Co-Founder Dr Abdullah Albeyatti.

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Medicalchain was founded to improve the way in which patients’ medical data is collected, collated, shared and secured within the current healthcare system. At present, record keeping within healthcare is flawed; patients’ information is spread over multiple systems, hospitals, networks and physicians, with siloed communication taking place between all parties. This fragmented record keeping has led to security lapses in patients’ data protection (as demonstrated by the 2017 NHS WannaCry malware attack), unnecessary risks for patient care including incorrect decision making and delays, and needless costs for the patient or healthcare institution.

Medicalchain addresses issues facing healthcare systems all over the world which are suffering from burdened and outdated record-keeping, and oversubscribed GPs and healthcare professionals working within severe time constraints and without sufficient resources to hand. These situations result in routine appointments such as referrals, second opinions, education, follow-up care, monitoring, and diagnosis being incredibly cumbersome and costly for patients to organise.

Dr Abdullah Albeyatti, Co-Founder and CEO of Medicalchain, commented: “Medicalchain is focused on addressing the issue of a fragmented healthcare system. By creating an immutable, healthcare record that is incorruptible, trusted and cannot be deleted or tampered with – by patients or clinicians alike – we’re empowering patients to be at the centre of their care and enabling clinicians to make informed decision-making, as well as communicate to each other with ease.”

One of the most highly anticipated ICOs of Q1 2018, it had received over 135,000 registrations prior to launch. MedTokens went on sale at 10:00hrs on 1st February 2018 and within two minutes of launching the sale Medicalchain received 45,000 KYC (Know Your Customer) registrations. The sale completed, achieving the target pre-sale and ICO hardcap of $24,000,000 USD. The speed with which it completed was a testament to the belief in Medicalchain’s platform among the committed community that Medicalchain has built over the past year.

Commenting on the ICO, Mo Tayeb, Co-Founder and COO of Medicalchain, said: “We are really excited to have brought the ICO to a close and listed on these exchanges today. Blockchain is changing the way we approach virtually every industry and the security and transparency it offers makes it perfect for health data. In the coming months, we will be developing our Medicalchain platform and rolling out some exciting applications which will give millions of people access to better healthcare.”

The company is already working with healthcare professionals in several countries on projects to pilot the new healthcare records system. Following the launch of its product, Medicalchain plans to roll out two platform applications:

• A Telemedicine app which will connect doctors and patients around the world via video. Patients will be able to, for the first time, share their records with doctors online whilst having a remote consultation. This leads to a more complete consultation for both patient and doctor, who is safe in the knowledge that they’ll have access to the patients’ full medical history, allowing them to perform more complex diagnoses remotely than ever before.
• A Health Data Marketplace which will allow patients to monetise their healthcare records and agree to share their records with research companies by granting them access to the records. The process would be completely anonymous to protect patients’ privacy.

Transactions over the Medicalchain platform will be completed using MedTokens.

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