While you have likely heard of bitcoin, the ledger technology that underlies this digital currency could end up being a lot more valuable to industries everywhere, especially in the health field. Blockchain is a data structure that can be timed-stamped and signed using a private key to prevent tampering, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, and it is emerging through pilots and partnerships with the potential to solve some of healths major IT challenges.Blockchain technology has the potential to transform health care, placing the patient at the center of the health care ecosystem and increasing the security, privacy, and interoperability of health data. This technology could provide a new model for health information exchanges (HIE) by making electronic medical records more efficient, disintermediated, and secure, says a new Deloitte study on bitcoins potential impact.While the study notes that the technology is certainly not a cure-all for the issues plaguing the healthcare industry, it is opening the door for experimentation and proof-of-concept testing as to ways to improve, particularly as blockchain tools evolve with the help of companies like Microsoft.According to a recent IBM study, of 200 surveyed payer and provider healthcare executives, 16 percent expect to have a commercial blockchain solution at scale this year.Most are seeing the technology as a way to connect disparate bits of information from across the healthcare ecosystem into a single profile for a patient.

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