Blockchain Technology in Anesthesia: Disruptor or Fad?

Summary
The use of blockchain technology in healthcare could help solve problems of interoperability, privacy, security, transparency and patient access to information, transforming the sector, according to proponents. We explore potential uses for this emerging technology in healthcare and medicine, including anesthesia.

Among emerging technologies, blockchain technology probably ranks somewhere near artificial intelligence and machine learning in the level of discussion being generated about its potential to revolutionize health information technology and the sector itself. An IBM survey reported that 16 percent of 200 surveyed healthcare executives had plans to implement a blockchain solution in 2017 and that 56 percent expected to by 2020. This eAlert offers a brief look at what has been described as possibly the most significant IT disruptor since the internet, as well as a glimpse of some of its potential uses in healthcare and, yes, anesthesiology.

First, what is blockchain technology? As a white paper by Deloitte describes it:

At its core, blockchain is a distributed system for recording and storing transaction records. More specifically, blockchain is a shared, immutable record of peer-to-peer transactions built from linked transaction blocks and stored in a digital ledger. Blockchain relies on established cryptographic techniques to allow each participant in a network to interact (e.g. store, exchange, and view information), without preexisting trust between the parties. In a blockchain system, there is no central authority; instead, transaction records are stored and distributed across all network participants. Interactions with the blockchain become known to all participants and require verification by the network before information is added, enabling trustless collaboration between network participants while recording an immutable audit trail of all interactions.

Blockchain technology's potential as a game-changer stems largely from its decentralization. Unlike the current healthcare system, which revolves around a multitude of centralized systems managed by intermediaries, such as electronic health record companies, "the blockchain flips that on its head and says, instead of centralizing, let's create a decentralized, distributed, global data repository for the entire industry that's basically shared by everyone and controlled by no one. Rather, it's controlled by everyone, so major participants who are participating in this blockchain also serve to secure and protect it," Micah Winkelspecht of blockchain startup Gem explained in Healthcare Dive.

In short, think potentially unprecedented levels of interoperability and data exchange, privacy, security, transparency, patient access to their medical histories, and opportunities for research, collaboration and real-time information-sharing. Blockchain's inherent decentralization could have major implications, for example, for the privacy and security of electronic protected health information (ePHI). Under current models, exposure of ePHI to ransomware or hacking puts all of the provider's ePHI at risk because all of it is stored in a centralized place. Blockchain's decentralization and use of cryptography in creating "chains" of data "packets"—permanent, time-stamped records that are impervious to tampering after the fact—could address a major problem plaguing the industry.

"The great advantage of BCT [blockchain technology] in the health arena is that it allows development of a stable and secure data set with which users can interact through transactions of various types," a group of Madrid-based medical researchers wrote in a review article, "How Blockchain Technology Can Change Medicine," published in the May 2018 issue of Postgraduate Medicine. These interactions could encompass everything from research and electronic medical records to data analytics and big data, teaching and payment for medical services.

Clearly interested in blockchain's potential for healthcare, the federal government invited the private sector to share ideas in a white paper competition sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Among the competition's winners were papers exploring use of blockchain to:

Blockchain is finding potential applications in anesthesiology as well. The 2018 Engineering Challenge of the Society for Technology in Anesthesia (STA) was to demonstrate a method of entering an Intubation Difficulty Score into a blockchain to permit an interaction between a patient and an anesthesiologist that allowed the anesthesiologist to access previous entries and securely add a new entry.

"Anesthesiologists have a relatively unique need for access to one specific aspect of the medical history—previous difficulty with intubation," wrote Jeffrey Mandel, MD, MS, of the University of Pennsylvania in the March issue of STA's newsletter, Interface. "While individual healthcare entities may have a standardized approach to labeling a patient as a 'difficult airway,' what happens when I move to another city, or my insurance carrier tells me I can no longer get care at my previous hospital? While we all hope for the ubiquitous EMR that can follow us from cradle to grave, the technical barriers to this are immense." This might be exactly the type of problem a blockchain could address.

Though hurdles remain, including the costs of setting up blockchain systems; the shortage of blockchain developers, which could further drive up costs; and the risks associated with implementing a relatively untested technology, at this point, the possibilities seem enormous and indications are that the buzz surrounding blockchain in medicine and healthcare is warranted. We will be interested in seeing how the technology unfolds as well as the implications for anesthesia.

With best wishes,

Tony Mira
President and CEO