Even in today’s information age , there is no established network for health information. The current approach for implementing Electronic Health Records (EHR) is failing. The global expenditure for EHR will exceed $33.4 billion per year by 2025 for an approach that does not empower patients, alienates and frustrates physicians, and is prohibitively expensive.
Developing nations simply cannot afford to implement the current, enterprise-based EHR systems. The few advanced countries that have implemented EHR systems widely have severely flawed implementations that have significant problems and are economically unsustainable. As an example, studies have shown that physician burnout is affecting 50% of practicing doctors in the USA with EHR implementations taking the blame as the most significant factor. And this is for a system in which patients typically have to file manual requests and wait days or weeks to access their own health information. Physicians are struggling with administrative overhead, taking away from the time they can spend with patients, and getting burnt out working with EHR systems that don’t even come close to achieving the kind of patient experience required.
Healthcare organizations have traditionally implemented EHR software as enterprise systems for their organizations, or departments. They use different software packages (as many as 1000+ different products), and different versions of the same software packages that are tailored to implement the requirements of a specific enterprise, resulting in silo systems. Once implemented for each enterprise, organizations or consortia then spend enormous amounts of time, effort and money in trying to make these siloed enterprise systems communicate with each other, which is made enormously difficult due to differences in data structures, software, and also the complexity of the information that comprises EHRs. The major flaw in this approach is that health information for patients is not “enterprise information” such as, say sales data. It belongs to patients. It needs to be shared across departments, and healthcare organizations, and needs to be controlled by patients. In retrospect, this is a highly complex approach to collecting and managing health data for patients, that has in practice proven to be tremendously problematic, expensive, and infeasible. Patients do not have access to or control over their information, and physicians are frustrated and harassed with the overhead that EHR systems bring.
Unfortunately, the current state of health care is not patient centric. As an example, in the USA, only one state explicitly gives ownership of medical records to the patients, 20 give it to the physician, and 29 states leave the issues undefined. This shows how much patients are not viewed as collaborators rather are viewed as challengers. We must begin to realize the more access will reduce medical errors while improving patient safety.
The Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) is taking a fresh approach to solve this problem, applying decentralized computing, including blockchain technology to establish an open, secure and universally available network for collecting, securing and managing health information. It overcomes the numerous challenges and high costs related to managing health information to transform the way Electronic Health Records (EHR) are implemented. It empowers patients and physicians, reduces physician overheads, reduces costs, makes EHR available globally to all geographical regions and economic levels, and provides managed access to health information that does not exist today. It facilitates advancing healthcare globally, providing improved outcomes, and services that are not possible with current infrastructure and technology.
We invite your inputs regarding the UNHIN project, your experience in implementing and interacting with EHR systems, and what would you like to see in an ideal EHR system.
Even in today’s information age , there is no established network for health information. The current approach for implementing Electronic Health Records (EHR) is failing. The global expenditure for EHR will exceed $33.4 billion per year by 2025 for an approach that does not empower patients, alienates and frustrates physicians, and is prohibitively expensive.
Developing nations simply cannot afford to implement the current, enterprise-based EHR systems. The few advanced countries that have implemented EHR systems widely have severely flawed implementations that have significant problems and are economically unsustainable. As an example, studies have shown that physician burnout is affecting 50% of practicing doctors in the USA with EHR implementations taking the blame as the most significant factor. And this is for a system in which patients typically have to file manual requests and wait days or weeks to access their own health information. Physicians are struggling with administrative overhead, taking away from the time they can spend with patients, and getting burnt out working with EHR systems that don’t even come close to achieving the kind of patient experience required.
Healthcare organizations have traditionally implemented EHR software as enterprise systems for their organizations, or departments. They use different software packages (as many as 1000+ different products), and different versions of the same software packages that are tailored to implement the requirements of a specific enterprise, resulting in silo systems. Once implemented for each enterprise, organizations or consortia then spend enormous amounts of time, effort and money in trying to make these siloed enterprise systems communicate with each other, which is made enormously difficult due to differences in data structures, software, and also the complexity of the information that comprises EHRs. The major flaw in this approach is that health information for patients is not “enterprise information” such as, say sales data. It belongs to patients. It needs to be shared across departments, and healthcare organizations, and needs to be controlled by patients. In retrospect, this is a highly complex approach to collecting and managing health data for patients, that has in practice proven to be tremendously problematic, expensive, and infeasible. Patients do not have access to or control over their information, and physicians are frustrated and harassed with the overhead that EHR systems bring.
Unfortunately, the current state of health care is not patient centric. As an example, in the USA, only one state explicitly gives ownership of medical records to the patients, 20 give it to the physician, and 29 states leave the issues undefined. This shows how much patients are not viewed as collaborators rather are viewed as challengers. We must begin to realize the more access will reduce medical errors while improving patient safety.
The Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) is taking a fresh approach to solve this problem, applying decentralized computing, including blockchain technology to establish an open, secure and universally available network for collecting, securing and managing health information. It overcomes the numerous challenges and high costs related to managing health information to transform the way Electronic Health Records (EHR) are implemented. It empowers patients and physicians, reduces physician overheads, reduces costs, makes EHR available globally to all geographical regions and economic levels, and provides managed access to health information that does not exist today. It facilitates advancing healthcare globally, providing improved outcomes, and services that are not possible with current infrastructure and technology.
We invite your inputs regarding the UNHIN project, your experience in implementing and interacting with EHR systems, and what would you like to see in an ideal EHR system.
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Shubh Singh replied to the topic Establishing the Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) in the forum Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
Great question. The penetration of mobile devices and data networks have actually increased a lot in the last few years so that they are already used very widely. This is not just true in India but also in other countries. Additionally, for an initiative such as UNHIN we are designing for the future, and the penetration of mobile technology will…[Read more]
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Shubh Singh replied to the topic Establishing the Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) in the forum Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
The Blockchain will confirm healthcare transactions and make sure that the report is indeed provided by a physician or a lab that has conducted the test. What this means is that it will not be possible for someone to fake a physician’s identity and put data into a patient’s record. If a lab or physician fakes a result, there will be community…[Read more]
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Dr. Steven Stein posted an update in the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
I firmly believe that this initiative to promote and set up a universal health information network is long overdue. Having instant to all of our patients’ health records will not only save time and money, but will allow us to provide better care to our patients. Kudos to this up and coming organization, and wishing them much success in this s…[Read more]
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Thank you for sharing that Dr. Stein. Taking this a step beyond we also intend to make an Emergency Network where if a patient is unconsciously brought into the ER, the physician treating would be able to access the patients information, Including knowing if the patient has any chronic illness, aleregies etc.
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Thanks for your comments and encouragement Dr. Stein. That is our very goal, and we want to make UNHIN available for free the world over using the power of Blockchain. We already have a large team working on this initiative, and will keep providing updates on the website.
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Dr. Steven Stein joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Saransh Khanna replied to the topic Establishing the Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) in the forum Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
UNHIN seems to be nothing less than revolutionary once achieved, but what I doubt is in developing nations we find a large chunk of people below poverty line or in other words who have no access to any sorts of technology, so how is UNHIN supposed to transform their health care ,will it be done with the collaboration with the government services…[Read more]
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Mohit Kumar replied to the topic Establishing the Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) in the forum Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
UNHIN will gather the medical history of a patient and anyone who requires that info can use the info with the consent of the person. As Kunal mentioned that it can be used by enterprises who often ask the candidates to provide their medical checkup report at the time of joining. So the person cannot fake the report. But there is another use case:…[Read more]
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Saurabh joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Rajat Sharma joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Vivek Marwah posted an update in the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
After going through this initiative and looking at the members comment, it seems like a great idea. Personally, i would like to have one secured place; which i am confident that i can share that data with any doctor in the world to ensure i get treated after checking my medical history etc. If that can be established, i would be happy. My only…[Read more]
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Security is indeed one of the most important factors for us. The UNHIN will implements protocols that make the information stored on any node “unidentifiable” and “unintelligible” and only the individual owning the health record can retrieve the information or a physician authorized by them to access their health information.
The UNHIN will meet…[Read more]
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Rupam joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Shivam Garg joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Ravi Aggarwal joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Abhishek Rawat joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Tushar joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Sharandeep Singh joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Mohd Hisham Muneer joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Deepak Sharma joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Meghna Khandelwal joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Manik Chhabra joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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Arjun Sharma joined the initiative Universal Health Information Network (UNHIN) 5 years, 3 months ago
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