On April 12th, Tencent CEO Ma Huateng said that Tencent blockchain will be used in the medical field, and the Tencent blockchain technology will be used to prevent electronic prescriptions from being tampered with.
On April 13, at the Smart Hospital Sub-forum of the 2018 China “Internet +” Digital Economy Summit, Tencent officially released WeChat Smart Hospital 3.0. Compared with the 1.0 and 2.0 versions, the new version of WeChat Smart Hospital has added new technologies such as AI and blockchain.
It is reported that the new version of WeChat Smart Hospital incorporates all informed parties into the blockchain (built a consortium chain) to realize real-time on-chain supervision, where medical information comes from, who uses it, and what state it should be in. The whole process can be traced. . Tencent’s exploration of blockchain applications is advancing.
1. Medical data, things we should all pay attention to
The flow of medical information has always been uneven. The reason for the poor circulation of medical information is that prescriptions and cases are the basis of hospitals, and hospitals will not easily disclose medical information to the outside world (of course, there are legal and privacy concerns).
The result of the lack of circulation of medical information is that users have very little access to medical treatment. For example, unnecessary repetitive examinations and medical imaging increase medical expenses; medical information is not circulated, and doctors can not fully understand the past conditions of the patients, which increases the difficulty of diagnosis and increases the workload. The non-circulation of medical information has also increased the difficulty for pharmaceutical companies to judge users, doctors, and medical institutions, increased various costs, and also raised the price of drugs.
Contrary to the hospital’s unwillingness to disclose medical information, medical information data leaks happen from time to time. Medical data contains sensitive information such as the patient’s identity information, treatment plan, treatment cost, etc., and users are often deceived because of the leakage of medical information.
According to media reports, in April 2017, the police in Songyang, Zhejiang, detected a serious violation of citizens’ personal information, seized more than 700 million pieces of illegally obtained citizens’ personal information, a total of more than 370 G of electronic data, and arrested 20 criminal suspects. , In which two network hackers who intruded into related information systems were seized.
In 2016, thousands of women receiving maternity check-ups and childbirth care in a hospital in Shenzhen received harassing calls and text messages from confinement and baby products companies. It is said that the information of the victims involved was sold by hackers at a clear price. In July 2016, more than 330 HIV-infected people across the country reported that they had received fraudulent phone calls. The fraudsters claimed to be government officials and notified the patients to receive sickness allowances and demanded handling fees. Because scammers have accurate information about the recent visit time of HIV-infected people, where they took medicine, ID number, and work unit, many infected people are deceived.
This is the current status of medical data circulation. The internal circulation of data is not smooth, and data leakage occurs from time to time. How to improve the safe circulation of medical data and give full play to its use value is something the industry has been pushing forward.
Blockchain + medical care will help improve the current situation of medical data circulation.
2. Blockchain + medical care, very necessary exploration
As a distributed accounting technology, blockchain provides the possibility for the safe circulation of medical data and the full use of its value.
First, the inability to tamper with blockchain data can ensure the safety of medical data circulation. The authenticity of medical data is the guarantee for users to go to the doctor safely, and it is also the fundamental basis for doctors to diagnose. The non-tamperable and irrevocable characteristics of blockchain distributed accounting ensure the authenticity and integrity of information. Any attempt to forge or modify medical data will not work on the chain. Not even the bookkeeper himself.
Secondly, the multi-private key authorization model of the blockchain can ensure the legal circulation and use of user sensitive data. On the blockchain, medical data can be shared. Of course, the sharing here is within a controllable range. Whether it is an enterprise or other medical institution, you can view the medical data on the chain, but the premise is that you need to obtain the user’s private key authorization. This provides traceability for the transparency of medical data. Compared with the Internet era, everyone can freely call the user’s sensitive data at any time and in any scene. Every time the user data is viewed, the process is recorded on the chain, which prevents the risk of malicious use of the data. Even if it is used maliciously, it is traceable.
The non-tamperable characteristics of the blockchain + the characteristics of private key management make it possible for the safe circulation of (personal) medical data. At the same time, the safe circulation of personal medical data facilitates users’ medical treatment, reduces users’ medical burden, and improves medical experience. At the same time, it also provides favorable conditions for the discovery of the value of medical data.
On the premise that medical data can be safely circulated, doctors, medical institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies can access user medical data by authorizing them to improve their business capabilities. Better serve users.
3. Blockchain + medical, multi-party win-win medical innovation exploration
WeChat Smart Hospital 3.0 incorporates all informed parties into the blockchain to realize real-time on-chain supervision. Specifically, the new version of WeChat Smart Hospital uses blockchain in the following two aspects:
Security: WeChat Smart Hospital 3.0 is based on the advantages of multi-party consensus, non-tampering, multi-party certification, and ready-to-check, etc. of the blockchain. It uses blockchain technology to build an alliance chain for regulators, hospitals, and circulating pharmaceutical companies. While ensuring data and privacy security, the data on the chain is tamper-proof.
Connection: through the integration of human resources, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, insurance and other resources, to provide services such as online consultation, prescription circulation, and direct compensation for commercial insurance. Taking prescription circulation as an example, based on core technical capabilities such as Tencent Pay, AI face recognition, and blockchain, it connects hospitals, circulating pharmaceutical companies and users to realize the safe circulation of electronic prescriptions and the traceability of the whole process, helping the separation of medicine. Users can choose a variety of ways to purchase medicines, such as taking medicines from pharmacies and delivering them to home.
The value of WeChat Smart Hospital’s exploration of blockchain + medical care is that it effectively revitalizes medical data, links medical institutions, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, etc., and guarantees that users can obtain better medical services. It is a win-win exploration for multiple parties.
For Tencent, participating in the innovation of medical data circulation is actually doing cross-border collaboration. It can not only train its troops in technology, increase Tencent’s influence in the blockchain wave, but also gain users, customers and the government. The support from the other side is a good thing that serves multiple purposes.
For hospitals and medical institutions, data circulation is conducive to revitalizing their massive limited medical data and increasing the influence of the hospital. At the same time, they can also obtain better and more comprehensive other medical data, improve business capabilities, and establish better relationships with users. Doctor-patient relationship (reducing doctor-patient disputes), reducing data collection and analysis costs. In addition, more real user medical data will also help improve the analysis capabilities and strategic decision capabilities of medical institutions.
For users, they have more control over personal data. Not only can you clearly know who is using your data, but you can also get benefits through data authorization (this is not possible at WeChat Smart Hospital currently). At the same time, more comprehensive medical data is also conducive to improving users’ medical services and obtaining more accurate medical diagnosis.
In addition, there are more third-party data users who can also get convenience in the circulation of medical data.
