If you’ve heard of the word “blockchain,” you’ve probably heard it in conjunction with terms like bitcoin, cryptocurrency, ethereum, altcoins, miners, ledgers, hashrates — the list goes on. There seems to be a hazy world of investments and markets out there that, somehow, people are making insane amounts of money off of, but many don’t understand. On top of that, people talk about how revolutionary the blockchain is, but are honestly also not quite sure just how revolutionary.
Well you’re not sure just what it has to offer, you’re not alone. The VA has claimed to be interested in possibly using blockchain technology, they’re just not quite sure how yet and they remain admittedly skeptical. However, they do see it as a possibility with exciting implications. Charles Worthington, the VA’s chief technology officer, said in an interview with GovernmentCIO Magazine that,
I think we’re going to be coming to industry with problems we have, and if you think blockchain is an appropriate solution, bring it to us … We’re really looking to industry for the best ideas, and trying to be nimble enough to take advantage of those as this market evolves.”
While this seems like another way for the VA to stall progress, it also shows a willingness to step outside their internal system that constantly trips itself up. A step outside their inner circle could enable them to use the rapidly evolving technological world to upgrade their systems across the board. An attitude like that, blockchain or not, could be very healthy.
Worthington explains that one significant problem within VA systems is sharing information from one VA entity to another. Miscommunications (or a complete lack thereof) run notoriously rampant, and this has been the case for a long time. While most people think of the blockchain in regards to trading things like bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, the same concept has been applied to updating information, to include medical records. Medicalchain provides an explanation in the video below, and while they’re obviously trying to sell their particular system using blockchain technology, you get the idea (if you do not currently have an understanding of the basics of what the blockchain is, there is an explanation video from Wired at the bottom of this article):
It may seem complicated, but a key part within the VA would be making it user-friendly so an untrained person could easily login and update records accordingly.
A huge benefit of blockchain technology is that it creates a perfect auditing trail. There is no mistake as to what information is put down — even in the case of medical records. No central authority can change what’s been annotated, as that data isn’t kept in one location; it’s kept everywhere and is validated by every system involved.
Also (depending on its implementation) blockchain technology can be decentralized, meaning there would be no central authority managing everything. For those of you who are immediately skeptical of the VA or its employees, blockchain technology would be good news — no one doctor or hospital would be responsible for your records, and every update would, by definition, by an update across the VA system. That is, if it was implemented to operate as such.
It’s a new field, and while there have been several emerging fields using blockchain technology, there will undoubtedly be many more. The VA seems to be interested in waiting until these fields evolve further before latching on to something new — an overhaul for their system of keeping medical records would be no small task. Still, many companies (start-ups included) are currently pioneering the field, guinea pigs as the VA watches and learns.
Another thing to consider: while blockchain technology may bolster or upgrade their system, it is unlikely that it will be some cure-all to the existing problems today. Updating patient records is not the only issue the VA faces, and other solutions to this same problem have presented themselves in the past — there’s clearly something else they’re missing. However, there’s still hope, and with some progress might come new answers. Worthington says that, “The end solution could just look a lot like the solution we have today, assembled in a novel way that we were encouraged to think of because of blockchain.”
But for now, it seems the VA will play the waiting game and see how the technology develops. As usual, veterans eagerly await any improvement in the VA system.
Wired created a great explanation on how blockchain technology works here:
Featured images courtesy of the VA and Pixabay, images combined and altered by the author. Videos courtesy of YouTube.
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Actually, there is a new concern on the horizon, as of yet to be tested. Not sure if you heard of the Meltdown and Specter vulnerabilities that were identified for most modern processors recently or not. Meltdown which is primarily a hardware exploit is not the major concern. Specter has been identified as a "possible" method for which to comprise encryption technology, and remotely a weakness to expose blockchain crypto. Specter is a huge threat, because it can allow another application to take a peek at the innards of an application doing something. In this case, an application can gain access to the memory operations around a blockchain crypto operation. Again YET to be proven, but Specter has not been fully exploited yet, so time will tell how far it can be used to compromise systems. What is interesting is 3 days before the vulnerability (vuln in geek speak) became public, a couple of large investment firms wanted all their brokers to divest their customers of it (Crypto Currencies) - but then again a few still embrace the technology. Remains to be seen.
Right on, YP!
Luke, This is way outside my competence. Anything more complicated than a bayonet or garrote is beyond me. I know just enough about computers not to put White Out on the screen. What are the security features/concerns re this system, since the VA has a dreadful record not only losing files... but having them hacked... (or somebody loaded masses of files on their laptop and then leaves on the bus...) https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9d4bcdf775cdc5c3ab91ae208e273373f26a8e614b5084b592f480a70a234c4d.jpg -YP-
I can see where blockchain would be great for medical records, electrical grids, bureaucratic record keeping, etc. I'm not so sure I would like the fact that it would put an awful lot of people out of work by making them obsolete. While physical machines are replacing many blue collar workers, electronic record keeping to this degree would make a lot of white collars obsolete, too. We can have electronic purchasing and selling with items supplied by and manufactured by machines. All across the globe. Sure we can argue that humans are necessary to oversee but we are also creating AI that can do most of that, too. Hmmm....should be a good sci fi novel in that. Oh that's right...2001's Hal already showed us how such things would work. For that matter, so did Tony Stark's Ultron. :) Thanks for the article and for that neat Youtube video. I noticed it offered other like videos that I must check out.
And in 2262 they might get around to implementing it pending it passes the spotted owl and transgender preservation societies. #biggovernmentprograms #slow but at least they are looking.