How Blockchain Work with HIPAA
Blockchain in healthcare – In healthcare industry, there has always been a constant need for security and privacy to safeguard the critical or vital information of the patient from being misused. With technologies encouraging the world move towards a digital market, the need for cryptocurrencies has also risen. This had led to rise of blockchain technology too. Today, everyone is talking about blockchain and its applications in healthcare industry. Blockchain creates information packages by forming a chain that links the receivers data with one another.
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The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) is highly concerned about protected health information (PHI). With blockchain healthcare security and blockchain cybersecurity healthcare, a patient’s information is protected. With blockchain, patients have the ability to provide or not provide the receiver with the key to access their personal healthcare data. Blockchain supports the healthcare industry to stay ahead of formal guidance and regulations set by HIPAA without any violation.
Benefits of Blockchain Development for healthcare and how it will work with HIPAA
One stop for all information
Blockchain overcomes the challenges faced due to traditional methods of storing health information in multiple institutions using different technologies. For example, traditionally health information of patients were stored in different hospitals. Some hospitals may use cloud services, some hospitals may use paper documentation, etc. With blockchain, all information of a patient is stored in a single decentralized network that is accessible by multiple hospital institutions.
Hereafter there is no need to worry about the segregation of patient data. Blockchain records the patient information in a structured order as eLogbook or digital ledger which allows enhanced accessibility.
Protects identity, licenses and certifications from cyber theft
With blockchain, every data and information is highly encrypted and stored in the form of blocks spread all over the decentralised network. These encryptions are decrypted only to the people who have accessibility to these information. Thus, there is no threat of identity theft or security breach. Each data is given a unique key which the user can share with his peer and only then the decryption process starts.
One such application is instant access medical (iAM) that doctors have developed recently to eliminate challenges such as identity theft, secured data transfer, etc. in healthcare industry. Blockchain provides proof of evidences to authenticate doctors and hospital institutions.
Enhanced protected health information (PHI)
It is not easy to change a data or information stored in a blockchain network. In order to make changes, the whole network has to be temporarily shut down and the entire system has to be changed. This is not possible to accomplish in a healthcare sector because shutting down an entire network system temporarily involves cost and may delay critical healthcare operations too. Thus, personal data of the patient is stored and transferred through a secured channel and patients have ownership to their data.
Functioning of blockchain with healthcare data and information
Blockchain receives data from doctors, patients or hospital institutions and encrypts them as an electronic ledger. This information is distributed across the platform in a synchronized manner where each information is stored as blocks and these blocks are linked with each other. Each block is given an unique public key which is controlled by the user. Only when this key is shared, the encrypted data can be decrypted. This allows the user to provide access to information only to required people.
Multiple patient information identification is one of the major challenges faced. But as mentioned above, blockchain integrates all information together and stores it as one eLogbook. When a doctor gets access to a patients eLogbook, they will be able to access the complete medical history of the patient. This allows doctors to provide better treatment with a better understanding on the patient illness.
Conclusion: blockchain medical record system enhances the interoperability of healthcare industry
Data and information within a hospital institution and across different hospital institutions can be integrated together. This increases the interoperability of hospitals to provide better enhanced service to the patient. Blockchain has its challenges as not everyone has fully understood what it is or how it exactly functions. But today is the best day to use blockchain services to make life easier and better for patients.
Sonal Mehta is a Content Lead at SoluLab, USA based leading Blockchain development Company, mobile apps and software development agency, started by Ex vice president of Goldman Sachs, USA and Ex iOS lead engineer of Citrix. Solulab help build startups – we are a no-sweat technical partner for early stage entrepreneurs to launch ideas from scratch and for later stage startups to build more quickly and affordably.