Blockchain is becoming a legitimate disruptor in a myriad of industries. The technology has become so promising that none other than tech giant IBM is investing more than $200 million in research. Further, more than 90% of European and US banks are researching blockchain options. The technology can revolutionize healthcare, government, finance, insurance and personal identity security, among hundreds of other fields.
We’ve rounded up 10 interesting companies using blockchain in healthcare. While some can be categorized as fundamentally blockchain companies, others are familiar names embracing the new technology. Regardless, everyone on our list is proving blockchain as an avenue for improving the future of healthcare.
Industry: Blockchain, Big Data, Cybersecurity, Software
Location: California, USA
What they do: SoluLab platform helps healthcare companies safely and securely manage massive amounts of patient data. They provide easy, prompt and secure connectivity for patients with healthcare providers. Their blockchain technology enables the safekeeping, sale, sharing or license of data while maintaining strict compliance with government rules and regulations.
Blockchain application: Solulab employs blockchain for enhanced healthcare cybersecurity as well as to improve the way medical data is shared and used.
Real-life impact: Because the SoluLab platform includes complete and up-to-date information about patients’ health and healthcare activity, it could help to root out the abuse of opioids or other prescription drugs.
Industry: Big Data, Cybersecurity, Software
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
What they do: BurstIQ’s platform helps healthcare companies safely and securely manage massive amounts of patient data. Its blockchain technology enables the safekeeping, sale, sharing or license of data while maintaining strict compliance with HIPAA rules.
Blockchain application: The company uses blockchain to improve the way medical data is shared and used.
Real-life impact: Because BurstIQ’s platform includes complete and up-to-date information about patients’ health and healthcare activity, it could help to root out abuse of opioids or other prescription drugs.
Industry: Electronic Health Record, Medical
Location: London, England
What they do: Medicalchain’s blockchain maintains the integrity of health records while establishing a single point of truth. Doctors, hospitals and laboratories can all request patient information that has a record of the origin and protects the patient’s identity from outside sources.
Blockchain application: Medicalchain’s blockchain-based platform maintains a record of the origin and protects patient identity.
Real-life impact: In May of 2018, Medicalchain announced the release of MyClinic.com. A telemedicine platform, MyClinic enables patients to consult with their doctors via video and pay for those consultations with “MedTokens.”
Industry: Cybersecurity, Blockchain
Location: Irvine, California
What they do: Guardtime is helping healthcare companies and governments implement blockchain into their cybersecurity methods. The company was vital in helping implement blockchain in Estonia’s healthcare systems, and it recently signed a deal with a private healthcare provider in the United Arab Emirates to bring blockchain to its data privacy systems.
Blockchain application: Guardtime employs blockchain for cybersecurity applications, including healthcare.
Real-life impact: Guardtime recently teamed with Verizon Enterprise Solutions to deploy several platform services based on Guardtime’s Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI) Blockchain.
Industry: Big data
Blockchain application: Avaneer is a new company backed by Aetna, Anthem and Cleveland Clinic that is dedicated to using blockchain technology to improve healthcare efficiency, utilizing a public ledger to support better claims processing, secure healthcare data exchanges and keep provider directories maintained and up-to-date.
Real-life impact: The Avaneer network takes a forward-looking approach to keep healthcare data secure and readily available to authorized care providers.
Industry: Blockchain, Supply Chain Management
Location: San Francisco, California
What they do: Chronicled builds blockchain networks that demonstrate chain-of-custody. The networks help pharma companies make sure their medicines arrive efficiently, and they enable law enforcement to review any suspicious activity — like drug trafficking. In 2017, Chronicled created the Mediledger Project, a ledger system dedicated to the safety, privacy and efficiency of medical supply chains.
Blockchain application: Chronicle’d blockchain network is used to ensure the safe arrival and detailed review of drug shipments.
Real-life impact: According to the company, results from Chronicled’s recent MediLedger Project prove that its blockchain-based system “is capable of acting as the interoperable system for the pharmaceutical supply chain” and “can meet the data privacy requirements of the pharmaceutical industry itself.”
Industry: Blockchain, Medicine
Location: Moscow, Russia
What they do: Robomed combines AI and blockchain to offer patients a single point of care. The company deploys chatbots, wearable diagnostic tools and telemedicine sessions to gather patient information and share it with the patient’s medical team. Robomeds Panacea platform engages patients into smart contracts that incentivize and lead them down the path to better health.
Blockchain application: Robomed uses blockchain to securely gather patient information and share it with a patient’s healthcare providers.
Real-life impact: The Taipei Medical University Hospital recently implemented blockchain technology, including Robomed’s network, to more securely store and share medical records.
Industry: Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Healthcare, IT
Location: Georgia, USA
What they do: Patientory’s end-to-end encryption ensures that patient data is shared safely and efficiently. The company’s platform enables patients, healthcare providers and clinicians to access, store and transfer all important information via blockchain. Patientory helps the healthcare industry to move more quickly by housing all patient information under one roof.
Blockchain application: Patientory’s blockchain platform enables the secure storage and transfer of important medical information.
Real-life impact: Patientory recently hosted its first North American Blockchain in Healthcare Summit that gathered hundreds of healthcare professionals to discuss and learn about blockchain-based healthcare applications.
Industry: AI, Blockchain, Medical, Software
Location: California, USA
What they do: Doc.ai uses machine intelligence, like AI, to decentralize medicine on the blockchain. Users can opt into the company’s platform to share their medical and genomic data with a community of scientists that use the data for predictive modelling. doc.ai saves no patient data. Once information is uploaded, encrypted on a blockchain and used in a trial, the data is wiped out in order to ensure security and privacy.
Blockchain application: The company employs machine intelligence (like AI) to decentralize medical data on the blockchain.
Real-life impact: The company recently partnered with health insurer Anthem to study the use of artificial intelligence in predicting the occurrence of allergic reactions.
Industry: Blockchain, Data-Sharing
Location: Florida, USA
What they do: The EncrypGen Gene-Chain is a blockchain-backed platform that facilitates the searching, sharing, storage, buying and selling of genetic information. The company protects its users’ privacy by allowing only other members to purchase genetic information using safe, traceable DNA tokens. Member companies can use the genetic information to build upon their genetic knowledge and advance the industry.
Blockchain application: The company’s blockchain platform makes it easier to search for, share, store and buy genetic information.
Real-life impact: EncrypGen plans to expand its user profile to include self-reported medical and behavioural data. According to company co-founder and CEO Dr. David Koepsell, it’s also working on integrating a blockchain payment and auditing platform as well as forming partnerships with testing companies, analytics software developers and others.
Conclusion
Blockchain is a novel technology that can solve security issues in the healthcare sector. The top 10 companies mentioned above make use of blockchain for enhancing electronic Health Information Exchange (HIE) to aid faster data exchange across a wide range of healthcare applications which are efficient and cost-effective. With a blockchain, patients can choose to share specific medical data, for a defined period, on an anonymized basis. If built with the correct architecture and company, blockchains can be used for recording and executing consent-based patient data sharing. In short, these blockchain-based companies can provide updated information and allows access on a need-to-know basis. Blockchain is an emerging technology and these companies have the potential to change the way the world functions.
