Tag: healthcare

The introduction of web3 has redefined the ways providers and customers interact in both the digital and physical world across many industries. The healthcare industry is no exception to this, so let’s look at some key ways that web3 technologies are changing the healthcare industry for better patient experiences . . .

Data Ownership

When it comes to healthcare, most people have multiple doctors and facilities that they count on to keep their data secure and store their records. Further, most patients do not have direct access to their healthcare records and have to go through healthcare professionals to obtain their records. This can be both frustrating and time-consuming for the patient.

“With Web 3.0, patients’ data can be stored on the blockchain using smart contracts” says a Med-Tech article, ”Any healthcare professional that needs to work with the patient can easily access the data by obtaining a public key or unique ID, eliminating the need for institutionalized data silos fenced off from the patient. In addition, this relieves hospital administrations of information overload due to the management of thousands of patient records.”

Web3 paves the way to accessible, efficient, and patient-centered healthcare. It introduces blockchain technology, which allows patients to have more ownership and control over their health data. Patients can also seamlessly share data with healthcare providers, reducing redundant tests and streamlining care. It enables the healthcare system to be patient-centric while also decentralizing data by transferring ownership to individuals.

Data Security

“95% of identity theft comes from stolen healthcare records,” according to an article by techjury. This statistic is shocking to hear considering an individual is more likely than not to have given their personal information at some point and time to a medical facility. It calls attention to the need to move away from the centralized storage system that most healthcare industry vastly relies on and move towards decentralization.

Blockchain is at the core of web3 and this enables healthcare professionals to store patient securely with immutable digital ledger technology. The healthcare data records are distributed over nodes, so an attacker would need access to each node in the network to hack, alter or delete the data, which is nearly impossible. Moreover, accessing the data needs the patients’ permission. Due to blockchain’s peer-to-peer consensus for changes, tampering with the data is also nearly impossible. This allows healthcare providers to store sensitive information securely with less fear of data breaches.

Blockchain’s immutable ledger also ensures the authenticity and integrity of medical records. Patients can trust that their health data has not been tampered with. This transparency fosters trust between patients and healthcare providers, enhancing peace of mind.

Telemedicine and Web3

Telehealth has been on the rise since 2020. According to Telehealth.gov, “Telemedicine, or telehealth, essentially lets your health care provider care for you without an in-person office visit. Telehealth is done primarily online with internet access on your computer, tablet, or smartphone.” Since the COVID19 pandemic, telehealth has jumped in both the volume of technology solutions and applications across medical fields.

Web3 technologies enable decentralized and secure data networks. Patients have more control over their data and therefore are more confident to share it online with medical professionals. With such convenience, security, and connectivity, the future of telemedicine looks bright!

Source:  https://www.indusnet.co.in/web-3-0-technology-reshaping-telemedicine-a-paradigm-shift-in-healthcare/

ZorroSign is proud to be on the forefront of deploying web3 technologies—such as AI and blockchain—to improve patient experience in the healthcare industry with our data security platform built on blockchain. To learn how ZorroSign can supports healthcare by facilitating and securing the exchange of digital data, visit our Healthcare industry page or contact us today!

Digital Transformation in the Healthcare Industry

Over the past decade there is no question that the healthcare industry has experienced profound transformation when it comes to technology. This shift has brought enhanced patient care and streamlined processes.

One prominent advancement in technology for healthcare was the created of electronic health records, or EHRs. Healthit.gov defines an EHR as “a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. EHRs have becomes an instrumental technological advancement through the way they can:

• “Contain a patient’s medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and laboratory and test results,
• “Allow access to evidence-based tools that providers can use to make decisions about a patient’s care, and
• ”Automate and streamline provider workflows.”

One of the main reasons EHRs were created was to ensure health information can be created and shared across authorized providers in a digital format readily managed by multiple health care organizations. This allows for a broader network of communication and sharing between medical professionals seeking to diagnose and treat individual patients.

Another remarkable technology advancement has been the rise of telemedicine. According to Telehealth.gov, “Telemedicine, or telehealth, essentially lets your health care provider care for you without an in-person office visit. Telehealth is done primarily online with internet access on your computer, tablet, or smartphone.” Since the pandemic, telehealth has jumped in both the volume of technology solutions and applications across medical fields.

A third example of emerging healthcare technologies can be found in wearables.  “With an aging population in much of the developed world, wearables can be effective at prevention of chronic conditions, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, by helping patients to monitor and improve their fitness,” notes Proclinical.

Wearable healthcare devices for monitoring and diagnostics are a kind of internet of medical things (IoMT) or healthcare IoT that facilitates remote patient monitoring (RPM) and supports telemedicine. “IoMT enables the use of new technology that facilities patient self-service and minimizes the need for in-person visits,” explains TechTarget. “Consumer-grade wearables give patients access to data that they might traditionally have had to go to a doctor to get.”

The convergence of healthcare and technologies such as these has paved the way for a new era of efficiency, accessibility, and innovation—redefining the way we approach medical services and patient data.

Importance of HIPPA Compliance and Data Security with the Advancement of Technology

With the rise of EHRs, telemedicine, wearables, and other healthcare technologies, there is a growing concern for data security and compliance. This is especially true in the healthcare industry where the data is always personal, and data privacy and security are mandated by law—specifically in the United States with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

The importance of safeguarding patient data in accordance with HIPAA regulations has driven the development of robust security measures, encryption protocols, and strict access controls. To maintain HIPAA compliance, digital technologies have regular security audits and updates to identify vulnerabilities and ensure that the systems adhere to the latest security standards.

On top of HIPPA compliance, platforms that manage data security healthcare may bolster data privacy and security by leveraging:

• Blockchain technologies —by providing a secure, transparent, and efficient way to store and share information (such as patient healthcare records, prescriptions, diagnostic data across providers, etc.), blockchains are making it possible to improve patient care, reduce costs, and streamline administrative processes.
• Identity as a Service (IDaaS) — offering a comprehensive solution that addresses identity management, authentication, access control, and compliance, contributing to a more secure healthcare system.
• Passwordless authentication — by eliminating the vulnerabilities associated with passwords and delivering a seamless user experience, passwordless authentication methods improve data protection, compliance, and overall cybersecurity in healthcare environments.

ZorroSign Delivers HIPAA-compliant Privacy with the Elevated Security of a Web3 Platform

At ZorroSign, our HIPAA-compliant data security platform built in blockchain supports healthcare organizations with digital records, digital signatures, and document workflows.

Our platform ensures superior privacy and security with blockchain, IDaaS, and passwordless authentication, plus:

• Legal enforceability — reducing insurance fraud with digital signatures that are legally binding, tied to the actual person (signatory attribution), and immutable with court-admissible security certificates that never expire
• Cost-savings — through automating patient, diagnostic, insurance, payment, and recordkeeping workflows and digitizing paper applications, forms, and records
• Improved patient services — digitizing your office operations to quickly execute, store, track, and retrieve:
  • Claims management, payments, and prior authorization
  • Facilities management
  • Human resources processes
  • Logistics and procurement
  • Patient sign-in and consent
  • Power of Attorney and Proxy Agreements
  • Prescription approval routing

ZorroSign is just one of the new technologies driving improvements in healthcare and expanding the patient services that healthcare providers can deliver.

To learn how ZorroSign can support your healthcare organization’s data privacy and security, visit our Healthcare industry page or contact us today!

Though still an emerging technology in the healthcare industry, blockchains have the potential to transform the U.S. (and global) healthcare industry.

By providing a secure, transparent, and efficient way to store and share information (such as patient healthcare records, prescriptions, diagnostic data across providers, etc.), blockchains are making it possible to improve patient care, reduce costs, and streamline administrative processes. Let’s look at how the healthcare industry is already using blockchain technologies . . .

Blockchain Applications Today

• Electronic health record (EHR) management — blockchains can be used to securely store and share patient health and medical records—where electronic medical records, or EMRs, are “a patient’s medical history that is maintained electronically by a single provider,” explains Forbes, while EHRs represent a “patient’s medical history that is maintained electronically by multiple providers.” This application of blockchains can improve patient care by making it easier for doctors and other healthcare providers to access the information they need to make informed decisions. And blockchain technologies can also help to reduce costs by eliminating the need for duplicate records.
• Clinical trials — here, blockchains can be used to manage clinical trials more efficiently, as by storing clinical data on a blockchain, researchers can track patient progress and outcomes in real time. This can help to improve the efficiency of trials and speed up the development of new treatments. “Blockchain may offer a solution to more easily aggregate health data in a secure, trusted, automated, and error-free way,” notes Deloitte. “A solution which enforces rules, privacy, and regulations in a mutually agreed upon manner, resulting in a smart contract between patient and health care stakeholders can be an important enabler to clinical trials and research.”
• Supply chain management — blockchains can be used to better track the movement of medical supplies and medications with the technologies immutable and transparent recordkeeping. This can help to ensure the safety and quality of these products, and it can also reduce fraud. “Currently, most medical and pharmaceutical supply chains are facing significant logistical challenges, including a lack of real-time visibility into shipment locations, uncertainty transportation disruptions, product quality tracking and verification, cross-border customs reporting across borders, and complicated invoicing and payments,” write Jayendra S. Jadhav and Jyoti Deshmukh in a ScienceDirect article. “A blockchain-based supply chain, on the other hand, could track every step for every item immutably, transparently, and efficiently.”
• Payment processing — blockchains can be used to process payments for healthcare services (patient and insurers), helping to reduce costs and improve efficiency. For example, “Insurers can now work with digital transformation platforms to design and develop blockchain technologies to target specific needs instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach,” says Julien Breteau in recent The Digital Insurer article.
• Healthcare research — blockchain data storage and sharing can be readily used to manage the data from healthcare research studies. This use helps to accelerate the pace of research and improve the development of new treatments. “The growing digitization of medical care has advanced the acknowledgment of issues about secure storage, accessing of patients’ medical records, ownership, and medical data from associated sources,” explains a recent National Library of Medicine article. “Blockchain is recommended as a method of addressing critical issues faced by healthcare, for instance, protected sharing of health records and adherence to data privacy laws.”

Universal Blockchain Benefits

As blockchain technologies are tailored to healthcare, the universal benefits of this distributed ledger architecture include stronger security (as data is encrypted and distributed across multiple nodes), greater transparency (as transactions recorded on public blockchains where any node can view them), greater efficiency (automating manual data entry and record keeping processes), and more opportunities for interoperability (as blockchains can connect different healthcare systems and organizations).

ZorroSign for Healthcare

And at ZorroSign, our secure, HIPAA-compliant data security platform built in blockchain supports healthcare organizations with digital records, digital signatures, and document workflows. Our platform ensures:

• Legal enforceability — reducing insurance fraud with digital signatures that are legally binding, tied to the actual person (signatory attribution), and immutable with court-admissible security certificates that never expire
• Digital privacy and security — a platform built on blockchain with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to eliminate the errors of manual processes and transcription with full Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) compliance
• Cost-savings — through automating patient, diagnostic, insurance, payment, and recordkeeping workflows and digitizing paper applications, forms, and records
• Improved patient services — digitizing your office operations to quickly execute, store, track, and retrieve:
  • Claims management, payments, and prior authorization
  • Facilities management
  • Human resources processes
  • Logistics and procurement
  • Patient sign-in and consent
  • Power of Attorney and Proxy Agreements
  • Prescription approval routing

Healthcare providers know the value of serving more patients with the same staff, plus saving costs with digital technologies that help meet regulatory compliance while reducing paper, printing, and storage expenses.

Blockchain technologies are helping meet those needs in healthcare and expanding the patient services healthcare providers can deliver. To learn more, visit our Healthcare industry page or contact ZorroSign today!