Blockchain HIE Overview: A Framework for Healthcare Interoperability

Abstract

Data stored in a blockchain is immutable and available for access by separate parties. The excellent potential residing in this technology includes security, verification, and expanded data management for healthcare records, making it ideal for a new interoperability standard. As it stands today, public blockchain technology (i.e. Bitcoin) is a secure P2P (peer-to-peer) ledger system that uses public key encryption to protect information. Once entries are created on the chain, they are immutable, making blockchain ideal for storing permanent records. Because of this, authorized members of a network are confident of their data's authenticity within the encrypted chains. The shared ledger structure provides an immutable audit trail for every transaction. In healthcare, organizations can create authenticated records and entries without needing a central authority. Each link in the chain verifies the next, traceable back to what’s called the Genesis block, a.k.a. the first block in the chain ever created.