6 ms·

Sounds exactly like a proper use case for a blockchain.

by fpanettieri 8y ago

maxxxxx 8y ago
In what way would blockchain solve the problems?
- arsenico 8y ago
  I think, the idea is the distributed ledger, which allows you to store the information not with a centralised authority, but yourself. Blockchain would not necessarily be a good technological approach, but a distributed ledger, would be.
  - nradov 8y ago
    In general the healthcare system can't rely on patients to store their own data. Patients lose devices, forget their passwords, get hacked, etc. Certainly we should make it easier for patients to obtain copies of their medical records but it just isn't feasible to put the patient at the center of the data flow.
nradov 8y ago
This is not a proper use case for blockchain. Blockchain technology is primarily for allowing transactions between parties that don't trust each other. That's not a problem we have in the US healthcare system. Providers are all known and generally licensed by the government. They adhere to strict rules of conduct, and if one of them breaks that trust they are subject to civil and criminal penalties. As a technical matter, no one has yet demonstrated a blockchain that can scale to the amount of data and transaction volume required to maintain a patient chart for everyone in the country. Especially if we include images and genome sequences the data volume is in the exabyte order of magnitude. This is fundamentally a political and economic problem. Throwing immature new technology at it won't solve anything.
- fpanettieri 8y ago
  First, lack of trust doesn't imply bad actors in the system. Second, a blockchain creates a decentralized public ledger. Patients can be owners of their records, and sign to share access. There is already a working implementation of this technique in Filecoin. Third, PoW is the 'new technology', a blockchain is just a data structure. e.g., Binary trees are no good for the U.S. healthcare system. I know there are politics involved, but we are not politicians, why not try to solve the problem with the tools at hand?
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    There may be some use of blockchain but it doesn't solve the problem of incompatible data formats. That's the real problem.
    - lostlogin 8y ago
      Combined with the need for change. Reports are regularly altered and amended. How would this be handled?

Sounds exactly like a proper use case for a blockchain.

maxxxxx 8y ago

In what way would blockchain solve the problems?

arsenico 8y ago
I think, the idea is the distributed ledger, which allows you to store the information not with a centralised authority, but yourself. Blockchain would not necessarily be a good technological approach, but a distributed ledger, would be.
- nradov 8y ago
  In general the healthcare system can't rely on patients to store their own data. Patients lose devices, forget their passwords, get hacked, etc. Certainly we should make it easier for patients to obtain copies of their medical records but it just isn't feasible to put the patient at the center of the data flow.

nradov 8y ago

This is not a proper use case for blockchain. Blockchain technology is primarily for allowing transactions between parties that don't trust each other. That's not a problem we have in the US healthcare system. Providers are all known and generally licensed by the government. They adhere to strict rules of conduct, and if one of them breaks that trust they are subject to civil and criminal penalties. As a technical matter, no one has yet demonstrated a blockchain that can scale to the amount of data and transaction volume required to maintain a patient chart for everyone in the country. Especially if we include images and genome sequences the data volume is in the exabyte order of magnitude. This is fundamentally a political and economic problem. Throwing immature new technology at it won't solve anything.

fpanettieri 8y ago
First, lack of trust doesn't imply bad actors in the system. Second, a blockchain creates a decentralized public ledger. Patients can be owners of their records, and sign to share access. There is already a working implementation of this technique in Filecoin. Third, PoW is the 'new technology', a blockchain is just a data structure. e.g., Binary trees are no good for the U.S. healthcare system. I know there are politics involved, but we are not politicians, why not try to solve the problem with the tools at hand?
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  There may be some use of blockchain but it doesn't solve the problem of incompatible data formats. That's the real problem.
  - lostlogin 8y ago
    Combined with the need for change. Reports are regularly altered and amended. How would this be handled?