How blockchain technology can transform the healthcare sector?

Blockchain technology is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions efficiently, permanently, and in a verifiable manner. This technology is used across many industries, mainly the financial sector, food safety, logistics, but also in healthcare.

Blockchain technology reduces complexity, enables easy collaboration, and creates secure and immutable information. This technology has the potential to transform health care, placing the patient at the center of the health care system, and increasing the security, privacy, and interoperability of health data.

But how blockchain technology works?

The technology works on three major principles that are not new at all.

  • Private key cryptography – Data is secured, but transactions are open on the network.
  • Distributed ledgers – Usually, members of the chain maintain copies of the ledgers. Moreover, all changes made in the ledgers are reflected within minutes, and with the advance of the technology, this timeframe will drop to seconds. Public ledgers are available to the members of the chain, no matter if they maintain copies of the ledgers or merely initiate transactions.
  • Authentication – First each new transaction is authenticated, and then ledgers are added to the chain. Algorithms evaluate and verify all the proposed transactions. The information would be encrypted, digitally signed and stored, thereby sealing its authenticity.

What could this technology provide?

Blockchain could provide a new model for health information exchanges by making electronic medical records more efficient and secure. Since records are spread across a network of replicated databases, blockchain provides security benefits for the massive amounts of data that health-care organizations are responsible for managing. Enhanced medical research and simplified financial management are one of the technology’s opportunities.

Blockchain technology can change how healthcare functions and remove frauds from the system. It can also cut operational costs, optimize how data storage, and even eliminate duplicate work. One more thing that blockchain can help with is improving transparency. All this is possible precisely because how this technology is designed to enable anyone to validate data and preserve it for others use.

For further information, please check our infographic, or contact one of our representatives.

Author: Laszlo Varga

Biggest trends revolutionizing healthcare

Personalized healthcare, big data, and artificial intelligence are the most significant trends shaping the future of healthcare – according to Netis Informatics Ltd., the expert solution provider of health IT solutions.

According to the American Medical Association, personalized healthcare is formed by each person’s unique clinical, genetic and environmental information. Unfortunately, traditional health care doesn’t help every patient. A study conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago found that prescription drugs work for only 50% of the people they’re prescribed to, cancer drugs are only useful for just 25% of the patients, depression medications offer relief to around six out of ten patients. Approximately 66% (or two third) of the people would prefer to follow a personalized healthcare regime which considers their genetic or biological profile. Healthcare can benefit from personalization by providing the right drug to the right patient at the right time.

Thanks to low price sensors, fitness trackers more health data is being generated than ever in human history, some estimate that healthcare processes 50 Petabytes of data. Humanity created 90% of its data in the last two years. Big data can transform healthcare by supporting the development of data-driven solutions, that leads to better diagnostic tools and treatment methods. Life science, public health sector, health insurers, and healthcare professionals stand to gain from big data-driven new solutions.

Artificial intelligence is overtaking the conservative healthcare industry with tools for patient data optimization, for early and precise diagnosis or data analyses for custom design medication. If you would like to know how your practice can benefit from these trends shaping healthcare, Netis can help you to overcome these disruptions.

Author: Laszlo Varga

Mobile healthcare apps in the UK

A myriad of healthcare apps helps patients to live a comfortable and quality life through their chronic illnesses. Our infographic compiled by Netis Informatics Ltd. reveals all relevant data about mobile healthcare apps in the UK.

Nearly 75% of people in the UK go online for health information and advice, and 66% use a mobile health app. These are only two relevant numbers from the data compiled in comprehensive infographics by Netis.

Patients want consistent information on symptoms or medical conditions, need help communicate with their doctor or nurse and would like access to their health records and medical tests online. Everybody wants information about their health.

Many myths surrender and blur the digital healthcare industry, but more profound insights reveal a surprisingly broad acceptance of health IT services and solutions across all generations. The key difference between younger and older generations is how they consume information: patients over 50 generally prefer website and email, and younger generations are more comfortable using newer channels such as apps or social media. With the growing use of smartphone and tablets amongst the older generation this trend may soon shift.

As the public becomes increasingly used to everyday services seamlessly flowing from the analog to the digital, they will come to expect more from health services. Digital health services come in many forms: telehealthcare presents services that monitor patient activities in their own home, mHealth devices and apps provide data and useful information about health, health analytics allows deeper understanding of processes and digitized health systems builds the infrastructure for medical services (e.g., patient or provider held digitized records).

There are 72 apps recommended to the public by the NHS. Both healthcare providers and patients know these apps translate into a long list of benefits, such as monitoring of accurate health data, patient empowerment and education, data analytics with AI, ML and big data methods, information on symptoms and medical conditions.

For more data, please check our infographic below.

Author: Laszlo Varga

Medicine and Informatics: together for patients with dementia

The Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease mostly affects the elderly. In Europe, half of the people over 80 are living in their own home, so if they lose their autonomy due to dementia, they need immediate intervention from their environment.

Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, as well as other cognitive and dementia-related illnesses directly affect 44 million people worldwide. However, if we include their relatives and those who are helping them in the social and health care system, we get a much larger number. So it is a disease that has both medical and social significance.

The disease has significant costs. Dementia-related expenditure in the European Union reaches 0.5% of GDP. Though developed countries are spending more and more money on curing these diseases and slowing down the progress of them, they have not achieved a breakthrough. It is predicted that the number of patients with dementia will double by 2030 and increase by three times by 2050.

It is understandable, in addition to finding appropriate remedies, an early diagnosis of disease, and to keep the autonomy and quality of life is becoming increasingly important. In this task, solutions that integrating IT and healthcare methods based on scientific surveys have a prominent role. The ICT4Life project has been founded to design and support these solutions.

Goals of the ICT4Life project’s development:

  • Continuously monitoring the patient so early alerting and immediate intervention can be made;
  • Preventing home-based accidents (such as dropping), social isolation, depression and other emotional difficulties as well as drug treatment problems;
  • Maintaining the patient’s independence, security and social relations;
  • Supporting caregivers and reduce emotional stress.

The pilot in Hungary

We are proud that besides France and Spain, in March 2018, the first pilot project could be launched in Hungary, where, besides monitoring patients, a number of support services can be tested by the participants, some of which has been developed by NETIS.

Five patients of a day care center in Pécs have received an electronic bracelet that collects and transducers information of its wearer’s movement and behavior by sensors to evaluate the data. With this information we are able to get to know the needs of the patients so we can help and provide them solutions more effectively.

About the ICT4Life project

The ICT4Life is a three-year R&D project, sponsored by the European Horizon2020 program with 9 organizations from 6 European countries (Artica Telemedicina, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Asociación Parkinson Madrid, University of Maastricht, CERTH, E-Seniors, HOPE, NETIS, Pécsi Tudományegyetem), who are established the ICT4Life IT platform.

This platform is aimed to support people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other dementia and their environment (including family members, doctors or social workers). Its primary goal is to strengthen the patients’ autonomy and improve their life quality, while their environment is supported by IT tools in many areas.

Author: Eva Lajko

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