The medical industry is poised to be the next major field disrupted by the emergence of blockchain technologies, with a recent study by IBM illustrating that more than half of healthcare executives intend to implement blockchain technologies into their organisations by 2020. The capacity of a distributed ledger technology for ensuring data integrity whilst sharing between parties can ensure collaboration between rising trends in healthcare, which are vital to the improvement of health in communities worldwide. The benefits to this strategy are endless as the security and confidentiality of patient records and financial data are paramount in the medical industry. Those who are adapting and implementing the technologies will now be ahead of the curve, as experts believe it’s only a matter of time before blockchain technology in the medical industry is virtually standard. Active stocks in the industry with market performance and recent developments include Medical Innovation Holdings, Xtant Medical Holdings, Net Element Inc, Hive Blockchain Technologies, Eastman Kodak Company, and Pareteum Corporation.
Medical Innovation Holdings has announced that its future development efforts will include blockchain technology. The Company understands today’s methods of protecting patient medical and financial data that is continually threatened by ‘digital assassins’ dedicated to finding weaknesses in systems for the purpose of stealing sensitive data and/or holding companies’ hostage for return of data. This environment cannot continue to exist. MIHI sees blockchain – an immutable ledger of information that can be permissioned, shared and trusted – as a key part of the answer to solve these critical weaknesses.
The Company recently announced its endeavour into the Health Care Sharing Organizations (HCSO) marketplace and has determined the systems necessary to best capitalise and manage this marketplace that will be blockchain-centric. The Company expects other faith-based and ethics-based sharing organisations to incorporate the MIHI Blockchain Platform where appropriate security and exchange of data is a requisite to ensure patients, providers and payers are all able to benefit from this technology platform. This will make for a more efficient movement of secure data, resulting in lower transactional costs of moving data across a worldwide network. MIHI plans to release an initial version to support its own operations and then later migrate the application to allow third-party sharing organisations to utilise the platform under a transaction fee arrangement.
As information moves to patient portals that allow universal access to data across disparate medical systems in hospitals, physician offices, insurance companies and employers, blockchain technology will enable the patient to finally be at the centre of their care model and thus providing them with the best system to provide protection and create trust between elements of their care continuum. This trust extends beyond borders and will eventually allow the company to accept foreign payments for telemedicine services across the world.
Arturo “Jake” Sanchez, MIHI CEO, stated, “We are at the beginning of a technological trend that will revolutionise how we use and share medical and financial information. For example, today’s method of having patients fill out medical history forms will become outdated as patients will be able to electronically share their own virtual records and interface them to disparate medical record keeping systems. Everyone in the chain will have instant, controlled access to any changes in the data distributed across all members of the chain that can include other medical practitioners, insurance providers, CMS, drug manufacturers and other parties. Committing MIHI to blockchain development will insure that the medical data we move across the healthcare ecosystem can be trusted, secure and immutable and that our automated workflows will be a tremendous differentiator in a crowded market,” concluded Mr. Sanchez.
Net Element’s blockchain-focused business is a decentralised crypto-based ecosystem that will act as a framework for value-added services (“VAS”) that can connect merchants and consumers directly utilising blockchain technology while increasing the speed and efficiency of transactions made through the Company’s processing, settlement and services ecosystem.
Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. recently announced the completion of the first phase (“Sweden Phase 1”) of a multi-phase build-out of a large-scale GPU-based mining complex in Sweden. HIVE’s Sweden Phase 1 operation commenced mining Ethereum on January 15, 2018 and increases the Company’s energy consumption dedicated to cryptocurrency mining by over 175% to 10.6MW. HIVE is fully financed to add an additional 13.6MW of GPU mining capacity in Sweden by April 2018 and a further 20.0MW of ASIC mining capacity, facilities capable of mining Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, by September 2018.
Eastman Kodak Company and WENN Digital Inc. recently announced the launch of the KODAKOne image rights management platform and KODAKCoin, a photo-centric cryptocurrency to empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management. Utilising blockchain technology, the KODAKOne platform will create an encrypted, digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers to register both new and archive work that they can then license within the platform. With KODAKCoin, participating photographers are invited to take part in a new economy for photography, receive payment for licensing their work immediately upon sale and for both professional and amateur photographers, sell their work confidently on a secure blockchain platform.
Pareteum Corporation recently announced that it has expanded its relationship with AirFox by adding AirFox’s blockchain and AirToken (AIR) platform to the Pareteum Global Cloud Service Platform. As Pareteum continues to expand into the global and emerging markets, the companies previously partnered to provide subscriber connection subsidies, for Pareteum’s MVNO customers and their retail customers, via paid advertising by Google and other advertising management platforms. The addition of AirFox’s microloan application, backed by its AirToken (AIR), provides MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Enablers), and Smart City companies their own peer-to-peer direct non-cash settlement services. It is these blockchain-secured and crypto-paid services that will serve the needs of local citizens, many of whom are underbanked, with a micro lending opportunity that is expected to have demonstrable ecosystem impact and facilitate seamless, non-cash payments, all through their mobile services.
