Those who view Bitcoin as revolutionary will most likely look at its financial implications. Yet, as noted by Cointelegraph’s Amelia Tomasicchio, Bitcoin’s Blockchain technology shows plenty of potential for upgrading the current standards of security and data management in other industries.
Healthcare is one industry where Blockchain tech has already been making strides. It is currently a central approach that has medical institutions storing patient data with very little access by the patients themselves. Even the introduction of electronic patient data storage has done little to change this well-established system. Today, patients remain wholly reliant on physicians in order to access, alter and distribute their medical history.
And with limited regulations on who among medical staff can access the records and when, there is an ongoing issue of privacy with the way medical data is stored. Tomasicchio explains that the new Medicalchain platform could change this by allowing patients to store their own data in a decentralized system that empowers the patients. This way, patients can control which medical personnel and institutions can access their records.
Mo Tayeb, co-founder of the Medicalchain startup, expects his Blockchain-based platform to change the way patient data is stored for the better. Aiming to eventually cover the entire world, Tayeb intends to keep his company independent from health institutions and instead deal directly with prospective users.
While Medicalchain is still in its infancy, Tayeb promises users a more dependable interface with much greater control over their medical records. More accurate information and improved privacy is only one aspect of the benefits.
Tayeb’s company already has a competitor with similar goals, although the companies differ in their approach. Whereas Medicalchain aims to be a patient-driven enterprise, Patientory aims to work directly with hospitals and similar institutions and have its platform implemented through them. And while the people behind Medicalchain want to launch their technology worldwide, Patientory’s founders are content with focusing on U.S. healthcare.
Tomasicchio says that Medicalchain’s intentions might seem contradictory, as introducing Blockchain technology to healthcare and other industries would be accompanied by complete decentralization. This appears to go against the permission-based nature of Hyperledger Fabric, the Linux Foundation-developed network.
However, Tayeb assures potential users that the two principles can work together – patients will store their data and regulate access to it, but they will only have “read only” access themselves. The option to edit data will be reserved for certified and verified medical personnel.
