I dont see the application myself either. Why not leverage existing robust technologies like a relational database?
Many databases can be modified by the ones who centrally operate it. The Bitcoin blockchain is the worlds first distributed global database that takes the burden of trust off your internal systems and records.
Yes, they are robustly distributed on each of 5,000 worldwide nodes.
But, think about that! How's that going to work for 10 million patients' MRI records? Each MRI being a series of high res images?
That's not possible with Bitcoin - its not designed to store near that quantity of data - its not even desirable.
I don't know what the advantage of Blockchain is with healthcare, but its certainly not storing your medical records on the Bitcoin blockchain. [Standard disclaimers about predicting the future apply.]
Maybe a hash of them, so you know they aren't tampered with, or that sort of thing - but that seems like a second order problem.
He's talking about using a technology like Tierion or Chainpoint to anchor a hash of the data in the blockchain. This can be used to verify the integrity and approximate timestamp of the data.
The post I responded to seemed to be.
It implied the data would be "distributed upon 5,000+ worldwide nodes in an immutable data ledger", and said it would:
"be there forever" "keep the data accurate and accessible"
I think its legit to call this out. Blockchain is a great technology, but its being hyped as if its the world's only distributed database.
> This can be used to verify the integrity and approximate timestamp of the data.
That may indeed be beneficial, but isn't the panacea that is being touted.
We agree. That's the primary conclusion of the report.
The DNS would like a word.