Healthcare data is extremely important, especially today when the world is experiencing a pandemic. Even before, healthcare data is used in various medical research and development that has allowed for many breakthroughs in medicines, treatment and cure of various diseases. Its significance is just highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the entire world searches for a more effective treatment and vaccine.
Crucial to the fight against the spread of the coronavirus is the ability of healthcare providers and other stakeholders to globally share updated data. However, at present, healthcare data exist in silos that make it difficult for data to be shared across institutions, states and countries. With healthcare on blockchain, people can rely on a single database that can be updated by stakeholders around the globe. And this is why EHR Data has developed a global healthcare database that allows for sharing information updated in real time.
“We’re taking all the healthcare data silos that exist in the U.S., and we’re combining that into a single silo. In doing that, we are able to track all medical services across all those different industries,” EHR Data Chief Scientist Ron Austring said during Sir Anthony Ritossa’s 13th Global Family Office Investment Summit in Dubai, where Bitcoin Association, a Switzerland-based organization pushing for blockchain development, was featured.
EHR Data calls it the Global Patient Records (GPR), and it is made possible due to blockchain technology that allows for the secure storage of big data and low-cost microtransactions. At present, only Bitcoin SV (BSV) has a blockchain in production that can provide these capabilities due to its infinitely scalable blockchain that is being continuously scaled to accommodate big and bigger data, making it possible for very low transaction fees, which currently averages at a tiny amount of 0.0067 USD per transaction.
“All healthcare data is written to the Bitcoin SV blockchain, which will function as an immutable, auditable, and trusted database. As a trusted database, the Bitcoin SV blockchain will also act as a data-bus to move data originating in one EHR Data data-center to all other EHR Data data-centers operating throughout the world,” Austring said in an interview.
Integrity and authenticity of data are also central in creating the GPR. It is important for data to be transparent and easily verifiable in order to preserve its integrity and authenticity. At present, healthcare data can easily be tampered with as it is in the hands of so many centralized institutions. This issue is resolved because the BSV blockchain being decentralized and distributed means there is no single entity or administrator in control of the data and a master copy of the data is stored in all nodes or miners on the network, making it practically impossible for data to be manipulated or lost. On top of this, EHR Data goes a step further in data authentication.
“Being a single source of truth and all of the patients’ data being in one place, what we’re going to be able to offer is that this will be a global solution. That’s why we call it GPR, global patient record. And when we integrate with a provider that’s providing healthcare data, whether that’s a pharmacy, a doctor, a prescriber, a lab, a radiologist or whatever, we go through an authentication process that’s very similar to a KYC process. So, all of the providers are authenticated. And when they submit data to us, we actually attach their provider ID to that data,” Austring explained.
Imagine if this kind of global database was in place before the pandemic started. It would have been a lot easier for healthcare data to be disseminated around the world. And maybe, coronavirus symptoms could have been identified earlier, positive cases could have been more accurately calculated and located, and vaccines could have been developed faster and more accurately. Maybe the pandemic would have been over by now.
