How blockchain technology will reshape health care

Blockchain advocates say a breakthrough “killer app” is imminent that will change the business of healthcare as we know it. In the meantime, however, there are at least five practical uses for the technology that permits the distribution of digital information, but not the copying of that information.

These include:

• “Smart” contracts. Contracts automatically go into effect when certain previously agreed upon conditions are met.
• Supply chain processes. The new technology could make supply chains more efficient and transparent, improving the warehousing and delivery of medical goods and supplies.
• Physician credentialing. A company called ProCredEx recently launched Professional Credentials Exchange to do this with a private Medicare claims processor, a private provider of Medicaid managed care and Medicare Advantage plans, and the Michigan-based Spectrum Health System.
• Peer-to-peer data exchange. A system with features that can include preventing people from getting multiple opioid prescriptions and verifying clinical trial data. The hope is that this function can also be used to shrink processing time for prior-authorization requests down to less than five minutes.
• Proof of work. In medical liability cases where attorneys may claim that physician defendants have altered their records, clinical notes entered in blockchain time-stamped blocks create a tamper-proof ledger of what a physician did and when.

The full article from the American Medical Association can be found at this link.