Blockchain in Healthcare: From Disruption to Integration

252 Pages·2023·8.465 MB·English

by  Stanislaw Stawicki

Integrated Science 10
Stanislaw Stawicki   Editor
Blockchain in
Healthcare
From Disruption to Integration
Integrated Science
Volume 10
Editor-in-Chief
Nima Rezaei , Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
The Integrated Science Series aims to publish the most relevant and novel research
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Stanislaw Stawicki
Editor
Blockchain in Healthcare
From Disruption to Integration
123
Editor
Stanislaw Stawicki
Department of Research and Innovation
St. Luke’s University Health Network
Bethlehem, PA, USA
ISSN 2662-9461 ISSN 2662-947X (electronic)
Integrated Science
ISBN 978-3-031-14590-2 ISBN 978-3-031-14591-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14591-9
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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Preface
Theblockchain doesonething:Itreplacesthird-partytrust
withmathematicalproofthatsomethinghappened
—AdamDraper
The modern world is defin ed by change! Change can take a number of paths, from
“slow and gradual” to “ab rupt and disruptive.” When the latter occurs, associated
downstream events can pr oduce a variety of often unpredictable manifestations.
Such was the case followin g the introduction of Blockchain Technology (BCT) a
little more than a decade ago.
Initially shrugged off as nothing more than a fad, BCT slowly but steadily grew
and developed into a powerful new technological megatrend. The gradual accep-
tance and an “awakening” of sorts came from the collective realization that an
immutable, decentralized ledger can transform many areas where the concept of
“mutual trust” is required but not always guaranteed. Examples of this may include
permanent and immutable storage of critical information across areas such as
banking, professional certification, court records, and real estate ownership, to name
only a few. Subsequently, we witnessed BCT increasingly entering more and more
areas of our social and economic ecosystem.
Healthcare is among the areas that stand to benefit the most from the adoption of
BCT on a broader scale. In a way, BCT implementations are perfectly suited to
highly portable, sensitive, patient-specific data that are typically utilized in the
modern healthcare environment. In addition, BCT-based systems introduce another
key component to the existing paradigm—the true “patient control” of one’s own
medical/health data, complete with the ability to truly decide who can and who
cannot access highly sensitive information that currently is all too readily available
to a broad range of stakeholders (often without explicit patient approval). This
“patient control” is facilitated by a feature inherent to BCT—the concept of “private
key” which is discussed in detail within this book.
Beyond the ability to introduce and ensure much greater privacy and personal
control of individual health data, BCT also promises to provide a unique new way
to implement real-time medical data processing and medical equipment interoper-
ability leveraging the so-called “Internet-of-Things” (IoT) paradigm. Within the
world of IoT, devices can seamlessly communicate and exchange critical data,
resulting in an environment that is not only able to instantaneously process large
amounts of clinical information, but also leverage this processing power to generate
real-time clinical predictions, therapeutic modifications, and create various other
adaptive capabilities. Finally, a highly refined data processing infrastructure based
v
vi Preface
on IoT has the potential to reduce medical errors, such as “wrong site/side surgery”
or “wrong medication” events.
Blockchain technology also has the potential to transform how critical areas such
as medical education and post-graduate certification (and verification) mechanisms
function. Here, a permanent, immutable record of one’s academic performance,
professional qualifications, and any other pertinent skills could be readily accessible
without the need for the current, highly cumbersome verification mechanisms and
redundant applications. National verification and certification systems could be
easily extended across the globe, with much greater portability and translatability
across regions, countries, and continents.
Similar paradigms could be extended to permanent recordings of medical
implants, vaccines, and other critical data points that currently require the bearer to
produce a paper certificate. Seamless access to records pertaining to prosthetic
replacements (e.g., artificial joint implants); vascular grafts (e.g., aortic or extremity
bypass conduits); or highly sensitive medical devices (e.g., cardiac pacemakers or
ventricular assist devices) would provide an added layer of assurance and security
to an increasing number of patients who benefit from these modern medical
advances.
This book explores the most important aspects and considerations associated
with the gradual penetration of blockchain technology into the healthcare ecosys-
tem around the globe. Given the rapid and constant evolution of BCT applications
in healthcare, it is hoped that this collection of chapters will provide a much-needed
foundational framework upon which further research and discourse can be subse-
quently constructed.
Bethlehem, USA Stanislaw Stawicki, MD, MBA, FACS, FAIM
Contents
1 Introductory Chapter: Early Applications and Evolution
of Blockchain Implementations in Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Stanislaw P. Stawicki
2 Can Blockchain Technology Change Contemporary Medicine
as It is Currently Understood? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Juan M. Román-Belmonte, Hortensia De la Corte-Rodríguez,
and E. Carlos Rodríguez-Merchán
3 The Current State of Healthcare Information Exchange (HIE)
and Proposing a Blockchain HIE Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Rohith Mohan and Todd Ferris
4 An Amalgamation of Blockchain and Connected Health for
Combating COVID-19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Zhuorui Zhang, Bishenghui Tao, Xuran Li, and Hong-Ning Dai
5 Applications of Blockchain Technology in the COVID-19 Era . . . . 53
Juan M. Roman-Belmonte, Hortensia De la Corte-Rodriguez,
and E. Carlos Rodriguez-Merchan
6 Distributed Ledgers and Immunity Passports: The Intersection
of Clinical Medicine and Digital Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Michael S. Firstenberg, Benjamin A. Wilson, Dianne E. McCallister,
and Stanislaw P. Stawicki
7 Digital Identity, Computational Reliabilism, and the Future
of IOMT: Epistemic Reasoning and the Role of Blockchain
in Removing Human Tampering from Pharmacovigilance
Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Mateusz Plaza, Sean Batzel, Thomas Wojda, and M. M. Alcaro
8 Potential Implementations of Blockchain Technology
in Patient Safety: A High-Level Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Minuette A. Laessig, Kushee-Nidhi Kumar, Wayne Bauerle,
Stanislaw P. Stawicki, Shanaya Desai, Kimberly Costello,
and Laurel Erickson-Parsons
vii
viii Contents
9 Blockchain in Medical Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
M. A. A. K. Munasinghe, M. A. S. C. Samarakoon,
and M. P. P. Dilhani
10 Blockchain in Education: Linking Competency Assessment
with Credentialing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Travis P. Sharkey-Toppen, Timothy C. Hoffman, Kendra McCamey,
and David P. Bahner
11 Optimizing Blockchain Technology in Academic Medicine . . . . . . . 181
Kathryn C. Kelley and Anthony P. Allsbrook
12 Distributed Research Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Thomas F. Heston and Alexandra Dullea
13 Use of Blockchain Technology for Implantable Medical
Device Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Kristofer S. Matullo, Chad A. Amato, and Pavel Burskii
14 Application of Blockchain Technology in Healthcare
Supply Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Venkataramanaiah Saddikuti, Sagar Galwankar, and S. V. Akilesh Sai
15 The Use of Blockchain in Fighting Medical Misinformation:
A Concept Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Stanislaw P. Stawicki, Michael S. Firstenberg,
and Thomas J. Papadimos
Index .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... . ... 241
1
Introductory Chapter: Early
Applications and Evolution
of Blockchain Implementations
in Medicine
Stanislaw P. Stawicki
Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what
nobody has thought
–Dr. Szent-Györgyi Albert
Abstract
Blockchain (or distributed ledger) technology (BCT) continues to evolve. Since
its early debut in the area of cryptographically-secured currencies (e.g.,
“cryptocurrencies”), BCT has gradually migrated into other economic, govern-
mental, and social spheres. Over the past several years, BCT made significant
inroads into the area of healthcare. This evolutional and transformational trend
continues, with growing number of BCT applications now including electronic
medical records, supply chain logistics, transaction processing (both retail and
commercial), academics and research, as well as cross-platform connectivity that
leverages the internet-of-things (IoT) approach. There are many other actual and
potential applications of BCT in healthcare. This book is dedicated to exploring
S. P. Stawicki (&)
Department of Surgery, Division of Traumatology and Surgical Critical Care, St. Luke’s
University Health Network, Bethlehem, PA, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
S. P. Stawicki
Department of Research and Innovation, East Wing 2 Research Administration, 801 Ostrum
Street, Bethlehem, PA, USA
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 1
S. Stawicki (ed.), Blockchain in Healthcare, Integrated Science 10,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14591-9_1