The unique attributes of Healthcare data make it a prime target for nefarious actors. Predictably, healthcare information is tightly regulated by privacy and security laws in the United States and European Union and international rules governing cloud data storage. The data's high value, coupled with these regulatory requirements, has motivated organizations to explore using blockchain to secure data. Blockchain is a digital ledger consisting of a "chain of blocks." Transactions added to a new block are validated before inclusion in the block. When the block is completed, it is appended in chronological order to the end of an existing chain of blocks. Blockchain is unique because there are only two possible transactions: "add transaction" and "view transaction." Transactions can never be deleted or edited. This limited set of actions helps ensure data integrity, a critical element for healthcare, as well as non-repudiation. Ultimately, blockchain may enable efficient healthcare data sharing while ensuring patient privacy and data security.
With all the potential for blockchain use within the healthcare community the Health Information Management workgroup with assistance from the Blockchain/Distributed Ledger workgroup, recently published a new document, The Use of Blockchain in Healthcare. The document shows how blockchain can be used and includes some use cases to demonstrate blockchains potential.
Download and read the document https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/artifacts/the-use-of-blockchain-in-healthcare/
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James Angle
Product Manager, IT Services-Information Security
Trinity Health
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