Scott Nicholas
Deloitte‘s response to the Department of Health and Human Services‘ blockchain ideation challenge focuses on six current “pain points” in the Health Information Exchange and the potential use of blockchain to address them.
Deloitte said Thursday HIE users face challenges in the difficulty to establish a trust network, costs per transaction, the lack of a Master Patient Index, inconsistent data standards, limited access to population health data and inconsistent rules and permissions for access.
The company noted blockchain works to address these “pain points” as it supports near-real-time processing, consolidation of patient health records into patient digital identities, data sharing and interoperability, distributed access to data and smart contracts for rule-based data access.
“Blockchain technology — a distributed digital ledger that records and stores transactions — has transformative potential,” said RJ Krawiec, a principal at Deloitte’s consulting business unit.
“A blockchain-enabled, trusted exchange of health information can provide longitudinal views of patients’ health, generate new insights about population health and support the move toward value-based care,” added Dan Housman, managing director of Deloitte Consulting.
Deloitte also suggested a four-step framework designed to help healthcare leaders evaluate opportunities to deploy blockchain technology, from identifying preconditions to implementation with preferred permissions and protocols.
HHS’Â Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology selected Deloitte among the winners of the “Use of Blockchain in Health IT and Health-related Research Challenge” in August.
