Blockchain offers secure, transparent platform for important records

Applying blockchain technology to vital records management offers benefits such as better security, data integrity and transparency to state and local health departments, an expert says.

The distributed ledger technology “is decentralized, immutable and provides secure, transparent and auditable access to data, enabling greater trust in data management,” said William Crawford, a strategic partnership development consultant who currently works at Solve.Care, an IT company for blockchain healthcare. . He spoke on March 9 during a monthly series titled “Web3, Smart Cities and Digital Assets for State and Local Governance” hosted by the Government Blockchain Association. “Trust is the most important part here,” he said.

That’s because in healthcare, vital records, such as birth, death and marriage certificates, are crucial to proving people’s identities. They are also critical for managing the spread of infectious diseases. During the pandemic, for example, health departments used vital records to track cases and deaths and identify patterns in the spread of the virus, Crawford said. These insights helped dictate response, including resource distribution and public health measures such as social distancing.

Blockchain is a decentralized ledger made up of blocks, each of which contains transactions. Records are stored as encrypted data on the blockchain, and public and private keys control access. “Public keys are used to identify users in the blockchain, while private keys are used to authenticate and authorize transactions and access to records,” Crawford said.

He described what it would look like for a health department’s portal to access medical records: “When the patient logs into the portal, they use their private key to authenticate their identity and authorize access to the records, which are then decrypted using their public key . This ensures secure and easy access to medical records while protecting sensitive medical information.”

Several state and local government agencies are looking at using blockchain for important records management. For example, as part of the Illinois Blockchain Initiative, launched in 2016, this state is studying ways to use blockchain for birth and death certificates, with the goal of creating a secure and tamper-proof platform for storing and sharing important records. Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom approved a bill that would allow county registrars’ offices to issue birth, death and marriage certificates on a blockchain. And cities across the country are testing other uses for blockchain, such as managing the maintenance of city vehicles and giving people experiencing homelessness digital identities.

Historically, vital records have been maintained in paper-based systems, putting them at risk of loss and damage. Crawford pointed to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when affected Louisiana residents struggled to prove their identities, access health care and seek government assistance after thousands of important records were lost or destroyed.

Blockchain is more secure and robust, he said. “Compared to traditional database systems, Blockchain does not rely on central authority or intermediaries to validate transactions or manage data,” Crawford said. In addition, it enables distributed storage of records, which ensures their accessibility and availability; secure data sharing between authorized parties and across different systems and organizations; and improves patient privacy and control over their health information.

The technology has a couple of shortcomings, he added – namely a lack of scalability and a need for standardization and interoperability. To address scalability, some blockchain companies use sharding, or breaking the network into smaller pieces (shards), and off-chain transactions.

“Sharding breaks down the blockchain into smaller and more manageable pieces to handle subsets of transactions, while off-chain solutions move some of the transaction processing to a secondary layer,” Crawford said.

He warned that blockchain is still an emerging technology, but the future is bright – as long as the government can help it.

“Government agencies and healthcare providers play a critical role in driving adoption and advancing the use of the technology,” Crawford said. “By working together and fostering collaboration and partnership, we can unlock new opportunities and drive innovation in records management, making healthcare more accessible and efficient for everyone.”

Stephanie Kanowitz is a freelance writer based in Northern Virginia.