Using Blockchain to Address Interoperability Concerns in Healthcare

20 Jun 2017
by Nitish Mittal

Government and public health authorities are taking several initiatives to boost the health IT system, which in turn is expected to enable high quality and personalized care. The main goal is to empower and educate consumers by equipping them with a real-time digital picture of their health. Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption, which is the first step in realizing this goal, has already gained momentum. The next step is to ensure seamless flow of health information across stakeholders that will make the information usable and enable better decision-making.

The ability of the health IT systems to share information with each other and use that shared information is called interoperability. The healthcare industry is incurring massive losses (monetary and otherwise) due to lack of interoperability. Also, the current healthcare ecosystem is shifting toward value-based care model, which is extremely dependent on data-driven decision-making. Interoperability ensures that right data is made available to the right person at the right time.

To understand the factors that can make interoperability a reality, Everest Group looks at some basic questions such as:

  • What is interoperability and why has it become so important for the healthcare ecosystem?
  • What is Blockchain and why it might be able to address the interoperability woes?
  • What are some recent use cases for enabling interoperability via Blockchain?
  • Are there any limitations to using Blockchain technology from the implementation standpoint?
  • Is IOTA Tangle the right bet for enabling interoperability?
  • Are there factors beyond technological capabilities that need to be taken care of?

Membership(s)

Healthcare & Life Sciences IT Outsourcing

 

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