The new partnership involves the following companies: Humana, MultiPlan, Quest Diagnostics, UnitedHealth Group’s Optum and UnitedHealthcare, each a major player in the for-profit U.S. healthcare market.
The focus of the scheme is on transparency and good data management, which refers to the quality and integrity of data, as well as the speed at which data can accessed. The scheme also sets out to see whether administrative costs can be lowered. At the heart of all of these aspects of health care is the use of electronic health records.
Electronic health records are systematized collections of patient data electronically-stored in a digital format. Such records can be shared across different health care bodies, via a network-connected, enterprise-wide information systems. The types of patient-centric data held includes demographics, medical history, medication, allergies, and immunization status. Other information contained may include diagnostic test results, X-ray images and medical care costs.
Electronic health records are not flawless and a sizeable proportion contain errors. The error rate is primarily linked to the design, although data input also plays a part. The problems with this aspect of digital health was outlined in the Digital Journal article “Risks of poorly designed electronic health records.”
With the issues of electronic health records notwithstanding, the consortium are, according to PharmaPhorum, seeing whether blockchain technology can improve the access and retrieval process in relation to health records. This is seen as necessary, given the ever-growing complexity, and fragmentation, of the U.S. healthcare system.
The five companies will run the pilot in order to explore different ways through which the technology can ensure that health care provider information is made available in health plan provider directories. Longer-term the use of blockchain may be extended to areas like clinical trials.
There are also potential benefits for patients, in terms of faster services and access to bigger databases which should enable the most appropriate treatment to be given. This overcomes a perceived weakness with healthcare records where different organisations keep separate records of healthcare treatment. Accessing these and producing a complete patient picture can often become difficult.
In related blockchain and healthcare news, the company Nebula Genomics has announced plans to use blockchain technology to pay patients to have their genome sequenced via a cryptocurrency. This adds to existing questions of medical ethics, in terms of who owns a genetic sample taken from a patient.
