undefined | Better HN

0 pointsDuckton4y ago0 comments

So I am not an expert in blockchain or web3, I've only completed a few courses implementing a blockchain in golang and I work in the digital health industry.

But the points you raise, are exactly the issues I've been thinking could be solved with web3. I am imagining using it to give control to the patient of who has read access(to what and when), who can add data, etc.

I.e. give full transparency and control to the patient. Instead of the current situation where a patients data is on different systems, you don't know what it actually says, besides what a doctor tells you.

0 comments

2fast4you4y ago

Could you go into how blockchain might solve those problem? Because it seems to create them instead

DucktonOP4y ago

I can try, but to be totally clear this is only an idea that I have in my head, and is far from fully formed.

But as far as I understand, it should be possible for a user on a blockchain, to have their set of data encrypted in the ledger. It should also be possible to implement a sort of permission scheme.

So I am imagining, instead of relying on things like Epic Systems and other EHR systems, that control your data and might have incentives to not share them with other systems. One could imagine a EHR system based on a blockchain. The patient can then grant permission to, say a hospital, to read certain data from the ledger. This could be scoped to what is necessary in the context of their visit or procedure. After the visit to the hospital, the patient has full transparency to read what data has been added to their own records.

Anyway, I am not capable to give a full technical solution, since I have not thought it fully through, and not nearly knowledgable enough to actually know. So I might be very wrong in my assumptions, and would gladly be told otherwise if that is the case.

Then there's the whole issues of how do you get existing systems as Epic to integrate with said "blockchain EHR".

Edit: This might be of interest: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14604582198663...

ziml774y ago

The question is not just how do you get existing systems to integrate, it's how do you ensure that everyone uses the same blockchain? Technological solutions don't magically force anyone to agree on things and interoperate.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse