Blockchain: Overhauling The 'Crippled' Record Management System In Healthcare

Ritesh Gandotra, Director, Global Document Outsourcing, Xerox India, elaborates on how adopting blockchain structure to EHRs will help manage authentication, confidentiality, accountability and data sharing while allowing medical researchers to access insights into medical treatment

 

FOR LONGEST time, the healthcare sector has witnessed constrained development of fundamental design changes for Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Stepping into 2017, we’re faced with the critical need for innovation that not only personalises but also prompts patients to engage in the process of managing their medical data.

The current need of the industry is a solution that is not only innovative but also decentralised — a record management system that handles EHRs using blockchain technology. Historically, EHRs were never really designed to manage multi-institutional and lifetime medical records; in fact, patients tend to leave media data scattered across various medical institutes – as he/she moves from specialist to another or when visiting beyond your boundaries of your city. This transition of data often leads to the loss of past data. The problem is further aggravated as record maintenance can prove quite challenging to initiate as patients are rarely encouraged and rarely enabled to review their full records.

This leads to patients interacting with records that are fractured manner, reflecting how the records were managed.

If health records of patients are managed by a service provider, the interoperability challenges between different providers and hospital systems pose additional barriers to effective data sharing. This lack of a well-coordinated data management system results in the fragmentation of health records.