#Lifewithblockchain: sharing your patient data

After a couple weeks you are actually going on a trip to the country all your friends recommended. But what a shame when you fall ill on the first day of your long awaited holidays. After some research on the Internet and some phone calls you manage to get an appointment at the doctor you need. However this is not the end of your struggles.

What is the pain point?

Even in Europe most will not just accept your "european health insurance card" but will ask you to fill out the following file and get a photocopy of your passeport:

This process is time consuming for the doctor's office as they have to print out the right fill, scan the passports, check the information the patient handed in and send everything to their insurance provider.
Moreover, this process is even more repetitive and time consuming for the patients that has to go through the process at each doctor and visit.

Some doctors also do not know about the existence of this paperwork and thus ask the patient to pay in advance the cost of the appointment and to get the money back from the health insurance in the country of residence. This can rapidly be several hundreds of Euros as I have experienced it and after 8 months I still did not get my money back from my health insurance despite multiple calls.

Why Blockchain?

All the confidential information from the patient can be securely stored on a blockchain and can be shared momentarily with the doctor. The blockchain could also provide the necessary identity control if someone for instance forgot their passport. This would require a validation of the identity through government office and would be reliable as data cannot be altered on the blockchain.
As this contains personal information blockchain provides a secure ledger that cannot be hacked.

What do you think?
#LifeWithBlockchain
Thanks to Pascal Mehrwald (@pascalmehrwald), Benjamin Pabst von Ohain (@benpvo), Prof. Dr. Isabell M. Welpe and the TUM seminar participants.