ONC challenge: How blockchain can improve health IT

Federal Times: The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has selected 15 winners of its “Use of Blockchain in Health IT and Health-related Research” Ideation Challenge.

The ONC is the federal entity charged with coordinating nationwide efforts to implement advanced IT to securely store, analyze and exchange health-related data. The ONC solicited white papers on potential uses of Blockchain technology — the data structure behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which can be time-stamped and signed using a private key to prevent tampering — to address privacy and scalability of electronic health records.

Read article