Admit it: you're worried about your online privacy. Admit it: your personal health information is one of the things you worry most about getting hacked. Admit it: you don't understand why your health care providers seem to have a hard time sharing key information about you. And admit it, you're not quite sure what health insurers really do, except for always saying no and for getting between you and your health care providers. This is why blockchain is the new hope -- or hype -- for health care. What intrigues me most about it, though, are its "smart contracts." The GAO recently cited health as a key area of cybersecurity weakness, and TrendMicro profiled why cybercrime is a particular threat for health care...
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Even Cities Are Jumping On The Open Source Bandwagon
When most people think “open source” they think of software Github projects and hackers determined to code for the Greater Good. But it’s also a wholesale philosophy that can be applied to many aspects of society—like running a city...
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Five Ways The Internet Of Things Is Already Broken—And How To Fix It
There are some 10 billion internet-connected devices in the world today...But there are some big obstacles before the internet of things can become a viable business...
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Getting Health IT on the Blockchain Bandwagon
Face it: health care IT infrastructure is a mess. After spending tens of billions of dollars to "incent" providers to move to EHRs, they're using them but are not very happy with them. In a world in which health IT systems should help improve patient care, they're seen more as a burden than as an asset. We now have millions of electronic records that are still way too siloed, and all too often incomplete. Worse yet, when those records aren't being hacked, they are being held captive by ransomware. Enter blockchain.
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Google to Create Blockchain Style System for Healthcare to Track Patient Data
Ever since Bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology became popular, many businesses are trying to find uses for it in their operations. Alphabet, Google’s spin-off holding company is also one such company working on creating a “blockchain-style” system for the healthcare industry. Alphabet’s DeepMind Health has announced its plans to use a distributed ledger-like system to keep tabs on how every bit of patient data is being used. The blockchain like tool goes by the name – Verifiable Data Audit which will be released sometime later this year...
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Halamka Evaluates Blockchain for Health Information Exchange
Yesterday, I read a New York Times article about a possible successor to Bitcoin called Ethereum, which provides a distributed database (no central repository) for the purpose of tracking financial transactions. I immediately thought of the challenge we have turning silos of medical information into a linked, complete, accurate, secure, lifetime medical record. Might blockchain technology be useful in healthcare? I posted the question to my colleagues, Arien Malec (VP, Data Platform and Acquisition Tools at RelayHealth and the new Chair of the HIT Standards Committee) and David McCallie (SVP of Medical Informatics at Cerner).
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Health Care Should Get "Smart" about Protecting Patient Data
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How Crowdfunding And Open Source Research Will Fight Cancer
...A researcher named Isaac Yonemoto is applying some of the concepts of open source software initiatives to cancer research. Yonemoto is undertaking Project Marilyn, a campaign to develop a patent-free anticancer drug...
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Hyperledger Wraps Up 2016 By Welcoming Eight New Members
Hyperledger Project, a collaborative cross-industry effort created to advance blockchain technology, announced today that eight new members have joined the project to help create an open standard for distributed ledgers for a new generation of transactional applications. Last month, Hyperledger announced it reached 100 active members in less than one year, a huge milestone for the open source project, hosted by The Linux Foundation...
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Medical Devices Hit by Ransomware for the First Time in US Hospitals
Is it possible that North Korea used a stolen National Security Agency hacking tool to infect medical devices at U.S. hospitals? Turns out, in today's topsy-turvy world, it is. When the NSA cyber weapon-powered WannaCry ransomware spread across the world this past weekend, it infected as many as 200,000 Windows systems, including those at 48 hospital trusts in the U.K. and so-far unnamed medical facilities in the U.S. too. It wasn't just administrative PCs that were hacked, though. Medical devices themselves were affected too, Forbes has learned...
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Open Source Collaboration Key to Healthcare Blockchain Adoption
Interest in healthcare blockchain continues to grow as organizations realize the potential data sharing advantages. Blockchain is not currently used in healthcare, but open source projects, such as Hyperledger, are working to develop blockchain standards that can eventually be used in healthcare. Entities are showing genuine interest in blockchain and are currently working on projects for future adoption, according to Hyperledger Executive Director Brian Behlendorf...
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Ransomware Costs N.Y. Hospital Nearly $10M
A hospital that lost control of its computers last spring when hackers unleashed ransomware on its systems has paid nearly $10 million recovering in the past few months. The hackers had demanded nearly $30,000 worth of bitcoin as ransom, but officials with Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, New York, declined, knowing there would be no guarantee that the attackers would fully remove their malicious software once paid off, The Buffalo News reported Wednesday.
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So...Is Paying Ransom What Bitcoin Is For?
The tech, law enforcement, and privacy worlds are abuzz with the recent decision by Apple to refuse to help the FBI crack the security on an iPhone, even though the iPhone in question belonged to an alleged terrorist/mass murderer. As fascinating and important as that story is, I was even more interested in another cybersecurity story, about a hospital paying ransom to hackers in order to regain access to its own computer systems. This was not the first such occurrence, and it won't be the last.
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Survey: Quarter Of US Consumers Has Heard Of Bitcoin — And Majority Of Them Trust It
Depending on your view, Bitcoin is either A) an elaborate Ponzi scheme or B) the currency of the future. Or, if you’re the average man on the street, it’s probably C) something you’ve never heard of. Read More »
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The Crypto-Currency Ecosystem
Just like the IP protocol, bitcoin is the culmination of several important advancements, all combining to form a paradigm-changing innovation. Read More »
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The Cryptocurrency Open Source API Marketplace for Developers
The API economy is the reality we live in and it’s an enormous one that, once the Internet of Things kicks into full gear, will feature an infinite number of API calls a day. But as we globalize, the world and the products—in this case APIs—we sell in it become more complicated and often more expensive as we factor in all the friction of exchange rates and credit card micropayments. It’s in everybody’s interest to smooth over that friction so developers can access our APIs or application programming interfaces more easily. To achieve that could require a change in the way we handle API monetization; something that should be done now before the API economy blows up more than ever before...
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