When peoples impression of Philips was still limited to razors and electric toothbrushes, Philips quietly entered the medical field.
Today, the Philips China team announced that,The Philips global research team is researching the application of blockchain technology to medical data privacy, data standards and other related businesses, and the domestic team is also studying medical data privacy standards。
In the 2017 global medical device company rankings, Philips ranked third, and its main equipment areas are remote monitoring and medical imaging. According to public information, as early as October 2015, Philips cooperated with the blockchain company Tierion on the first blockchain + medical project. Tierion is mainly engaged in data collection and recording into the blockchain. On April 26, 2016, the blockchain technology company Gem officially launched the Gem Health project, and Philips and it jointly developed a private Ethereum blockchain for enterprise-level medical applications.
Every medical transaction will generate medical record information about the patient, and the protection of patient privacy information has always been a pain point in the medical industry.File cabinets and centralized database-style information storage are no longer feasible, and patients private information is leaked from time to time. Good data collaboration can help improve diagnostic accuracy and reduce medical costs. Although the electronicization of medical data is basically completed, it is difficult to achieve safe sharing of medical data.
Blockchain can protect patient privacy by using features such as anonymity and decentralization. With medical data on-chain and medical equipment information on-chain, all parties in the medical industry chain can achieve safer and more complete data sharing and data protection.
IBM predicted in a report last year that 56% of healthcare institutions worldwide will invest in blockchain technology by 2020. The previously reported 2018 China Blockchain (Non-Financial) Application Market Survey Report shows that the medical industry has become the top three areas where respondents believe that blockchain technology is most likely to create value. The Medical Blockchain Industry Report believes that blockchain is useful in fields such as medical data health, genomic data sharing, medical insurance, medical personnel identity authentication, drug anti-counterfeiting, and medical supply chain finance.
At present, technology giants such as Google and IBM are exploring the medical application of blockchain technology, and blockchain technology companies such as Factom, BitHealth, BlockVerify, DNA.Bits, and Bitfury are also involved. On the other hand, in China, on March 27 this year, AI medical company Yipai Intelligence announced the All in blockchain, Ali Health and Changzhou City cooperated in the medical consortium + blockchain pilot project, and shared blockchain technologies such as BitShare and Boundary Intelligence. Startups are also planning related projects.
Although the Philips team stated that it is still in the research and development stage, the changes brought by the blockchain to the medical field are worth looking forward to.
