An overview of Blockchain applications and issues in healthcare

1. Is there a Blockchain Future for
Healthcare?
Jody Ranck, DrPH, CEO of Krysalis Labs, CSO of health bank
December 2, 2015
HL7 Policy Conference Precision
Medicine: Innovation, Interoperability and Policy

2. The Next Evolution of IT?

3. What is Blockchain?
• Distributed, cryptographic transaction ledger
• Platform that Bitcoin is built upon
• Tech protocol layer similar to TCP/IP
• Transactions posted (transparent) and verified
with time stamp
• Encryption Keys but ledger is transparent
• Enables decentralized approaches to databases,
organizations, transactions without
intermediaries
• Trustless networks

7. IoT Use Case
Source: IBM

8. New Forms of Collaboration
• Smart contracts-remove trust intermediary
and execute upon completion of task, ie.
Programmable web
• Distributed Applications (DAPP)- app that
executes a contract on Blockchain (Ethereum)
eg. Storj, a file storage app like Dropbox
• Decentralized Autonomous
Organization/Corporation: AI and smart
contracts, potential applications to insurance,
adjudicating claims

10. Health Use Cases (Swan)
• Medical Banking: disintermediating counterparties
• Distributed EHR: trust?
• Inventory management
• Research Commons and Remunerative Models for Data
Sharing
• Notarization/Identity Verification (insurance)
• Open bazaar for services/transparency in
pricing/health property exchange
• Collaborative tool/crowdsourcing
• health bank 2.0: remunerative commons
• Peer-to-Peer insurance

14. Privacy & Security on Blockchain
• Decentralize storage of record
• But centralized platform for
certification/recording transactions
• Multi-sig address for each patient record
• Patient has private key
• Every provider has a universal signature with
hospital having same

17. Applications Outside of Health
• IoT- micro/nano-payments
• Counterparty clearance in finance
• Smart Property- track provenance/anti-
counterfeit
• Real-time/contextual forms of insurance
• DNA.bits: integrating genomic and clinical
data, sharing securely, HIPAA compliant

18. Challenges to Blockchain
• Throughput- processes 1 transaction per
second
• 51% attack- one mining entity takes control
• Sidechains and interoperability
• Confidence in storing data in decentralized
fashion
• Regulatory uncertainty
• Business models

19. The End
• Contact: jody@krysalislabs.com
• Jody.ranck@healthbank.coop