Blockchain Applications in the Pharmaceutical Industry.

Methods: We utilized a 4D framework using ease of implementation, novelty, necessity, and fit of the overall industry to examine the adoption of blockchain technology in the pharmaceutical industry. Based on the 2D framework of difficulty and novelty as driving factors for the development of foundational technologies in the world of business by Iansiti and Lakhani, each application was ranked and scored for the best potential implementation. The potential applications proposed in this paper can be grouped into two main categories. The first category, management, includes best-use cases, such as health records, clinical trials, and inventory systems. The second category, monitoring, highlights cases, such as pharmaceutical products, preventing counterfeits, optimizing supply chains, and addressing prescription misuse and abuse. Results: Each application was ranked by the four metrics in the framework, giving the greatest weight to necessity and ease of implementation. Using the highlighted methodology earlier, the applications for best implementation include Prescription Drug Misuse and Abuse Prevention, Prevention of Counterfeits, Clinical Trial Outcomes, and Smart Contracts. Conclusion: Blockchain technology offers a new and promising solution to the pharmaceutical industry's needs. To promote the most appropriate use, each application of blockchain technology must fit within the framework of necessity, ease of implementation, familiarity amongst stakeholders, and fit of the overall industry. By using the extended framework proposed by Iansiti and Lakhani, we show how blockchain, in all these domains, shows promise to improve pharmaceutical industry performance.

Blockchain and population health.

BACKGROUND: Blockchain technology has made great strides in many industries but has yet to impact the world of public health. Population health issues such as outbreak surveillance and controlled substance tracking during emergencies all require a secure, easily accessible database. While the healthcare industry is typically slow to adapt to change, blockchain technology lends itself well to many healthcare issues. METHODS: We utilized a 3D framework using difficulty, novelty and necessity to examine the adoption of blockchain technology in population health, based on the 2D framework of difficulty and novelty as driving factors for the development of foundational technologies in the world of business by Iansiti and Lakhani in The Harvard Business Review. RESULTS: We find that by implementing the third dimension of necessity into an evaluation framework, we can better predict the adoption of technology. We found how different areas of population health fit into the evaluation framework and how necessity can eliminate barriers from implementing novel technologies. CONCLUSION: The byproduct of this paper will be the extension of the Iansiti and Lakhani framework. We will show that blockchain, in all of these domains, shows promise to improve population health as we move past COVID-19 and into the future of healthcare.

Adoption of Blockchain in Health Care.

This study aims to review current issues regarding the application of blockchain technology in health care. We illustrated the various ways in which blockchain can solve current health care issues in three main arenas: data exchange, contracts, and supply chain management. This paper presents several current and projected uses of blockchain technology in the health care industry. We predicted which of these applications are likely to be adopted quickly and provided a supply chain example of tracking the transportation of organs for transplantation.

A user-centered, learning asthma smartphone application for patients and providers.

PROBLEM: Smartphone applications are an increasingly useful part of patients' self-management of chronic health conditions. Asthma is a common chronic health condition for which good self-management by patients is very helpful in maintaining stability. User-centered design and intelligent systems that learn are steps forward in building applications that are more effective in providing quality care that is scalable and tailored to each patient. METHODS: A literature and application store search to review historic and current asthma smart phone applications. User-centered design is a methodology that involves all stakeholders of a proposed system from the beginning of the design phase to the end of installation. One aspect of this user-centered approach involved conducting focus groups with patients and health care providers to determine what features they desire for use in applications and create a model to build smart infrastructure for a learning health care system. A simple prototype for an asthma smartphone application is designed and built with basic functionality. OUTCOMES: Only one publication in the literature review of asthma smartphone applications describes both user-centered design and intelligent learning systems. The authors have presented a set of user-desired attributes for a smart health care application and a possible data flow diagram of information for a learning system. A prototype simple user-centered designed asthma smartphone application that better assists patients in their care illustrates the value of the proposed architecture. DISCUSSION: Our user-centered approach helped design and implement a learning prototype smart phone application to help patients better manage their asthma and provide information to clinical care providers. While popular in other industries, user-centered design has had slow adoption in the health care area. However, the popularity of this approach is increasing and will hopefully result in mobile application that better meets the needs of both patients and their care providers.

Teaching EHRs security with simulation for non-technical healthcare professionals.

This paper intends to simplify challenging concepts through role-play demonstrations and serve as a foundation for understanding the basis of securing healthcare data. Disparity exists between the rising need for security of electronic healthcare information and the number of healthcare leaders who understand the concepts behind ensuring privacy and accuracy of such data. Healthcare managers with a basic understanding of data encryption and how it safeguards health information are vital to the success of Electronic Health Records. They often are responsible for proper oversight of such systems and should instill confidence in medical providers and patients that electronic medical data is safe and accurate. However, data security and privacy are complex concepts and remain foreign to many healthcare managers. This paper reviews the benefits of simulation learning and outlines a workshop and simulation game developed in response to difficulties teaching the technology of encryption. The simulation has been successfully tested with graduate health administration students, as well as members of the technical, academic, and teaching community.

Why common carrier and network neutrality principles apply to the Nationwide Health Information Network (NWHIN).

The Office of the National Coordinator will be defining the architecture of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NWHIN) together with the proposed HealtheWay public/private partnership as a development and funding strategy. There are a number of open questions--for example, what is the best way to realize the benefits of health information exchange? How valuable are regional health information organizations in comparison with a more direct approach? What is the role of the carriers in delivering this service? The NWHIN is to exist for the public good, and thus shares many traits of the common law notion of 'common carriage' or 'public calling,' the modern term for which is network neutrality. Recent policy debates in Congress and resulting potential regulation have implications for key stakeholders within healthcare that use or provide services, and for those who exchange information. To date, there has been little policy debate or discussion about the implications of a neutral NWHIN. This paper frames the discussion for future policy debate in healthcare by providing a brief education and summary of the modern version of common carriage, of the key stakeholder positions in healthcare, and of the potential implications of the network neutrality debate within healthcare.

A standardised pre-hospital electronic patient care system.

This paper describes the design, development and testing of a pre-hospital documentation and patient monitoring application called iRevive. The application utilises a sensor gateway and data mediator to enable semantic interoperability with a wide variety of medical devices and applications. Initial test results indicate that complete and consistent pre-hospital Electronic Medical Records (EMR) can be semantically exchanged with two heterogeneous, in-hospital IT applications.

An intelligent pre-hospital patient care system.

iRevive is a sensor-supported, pre-hospital patient care system for the capture and transmittal of electronic patient data from the field to hospitals. It is being developed by 10Blade and Boston MedFlight. iRevive takes advantage of emerging technologies to offer a robust, flexible, and extensible IT infrastructure for patient data collection.