Healthcare breaches pose a major problem for doctors, patients, and entire medical and insurance systems, exposing confidential patient information and leaving responsible parties vulnerable to lawsuits “ and worst of all, these breaches are increasingly common. It raises the question: what can we do to protect healthcare data? New blockchain technology may hold the answer.
Extending The Blockchain
Blockchain systems are best known as the infrastructure underlying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but when it comes to cybersecurity, its function is to manage vulnerability and minimize available data via strong, standardized enforcement practices; by combining HIPAA and strict identity management, blockchain promises to engender greater stakeholder trust. Furthermore, while blockchain is being prioritized in traditional data security applications like records management, it can also be used to secure telehealth communications, in clinical trials, and tracing drug and medical devices through the manufacturing process.
Intervening In The Breach
Data breaches come in all kinds; you or someone you know has likely been impacted by credit card data breaches or other business services-related issues, and many stem from an insufficient emphasis on cybersecurity throughout a given organization. In healthcare, though, cybersecurity is already a top priority “ and breaches still happen. One way to reduce vulnerabilities, then, is by restricting access to a need-to-know basis and constructing stronger mitigation strategies.
Blockchain security supports these efforts by allowing healthcare organizations to create a traceable data record that would make identifying attackers simple. Blockchain systems can also be privatized for given enterprise networks, which pulls data off the internet or the cloud; deeply encrypted in this private, efficient network, hackers are blocked from interfering with data “ and if a data node is affected, it can simply be shut down, disconnected from the rest of the system.
Tracking Data’s Path
Another key benefit of using blockchain in healthcare, specifically in those cases where the system needs to be generally available “ think Medicaid/Medicare or public hospital systems “ is that, while it may be less than ideal for storing the actual healthcare data, blockchain can trace how healthcare data is used. It offers a sense of that data’s path and reveals some of the behind the scenes manipulations of that information. Many people experience anxiety about whether their healthcare data is used in advertising or to market lifestyle products, and the blockchain could answer those questions.
Demanding Decentralized Data
Finally, blockchain is inherently decentralized, which means that the data held therein is also decentralized, and that’s a good thing when storing sensitive information; one fragment, in isolation, means very little. And in this spread out data landscape, hackers also need to access or discern countless individual encryption keys. It’s simply impractical on that end. Users can manipulate and manage data fairly easily, but hackers and other bad actors simply don’t have access to sufficient information to do real harm. Right now, hackers hijack entire records systems, and that’s just not possible when using blockchain.
Blockchain promises to create a more secure healthcare system, and “ more importantly “ it also makes it easier for providers to keep patients safe. If a device or medication is recalled, doctors can quickly identify which patients are affected. If drugs are stolen from a shipment, it’s immediately obvious, and causal employee error, such as stepping away from an active computer terminal, ceases to be an overwhelming risk. This new frontier may not be flawless, but it is a substantial improvement over existing options for storing and managing healthcare data, and it’s coming to an organization near you.
