This document compares two approaches for integrating healthcare data - FHIR and blockchain. It discusses how FHIR uses common data formats and APIs to allow different systems to easily share data. Blockchain can also facilitate secure data sharing across systems. While FHIR messages transfer data quickly, blockchain stores all data locally but synchronization takes more time. The document concludes that a combination of FHIR and blockchain could create a more patient-centric system with improved security, data accuracy, and access controls.

2.  In today’s digital world, health data
management remains to be one of the ongoing
challenges worldwide.
 The healthcare data transmission has lagged
behind the trend due to its complexity and
sensitivity. This limits the healthcare providers’
ability to coordinate care, perform data
analytics, and cost-effectively integrate IT
environments.

3.  The question now becomes which places
on the top in terms of benefits among
these two data integration systems- FHIR
and blockchain.
 This article lets you understand the real
benefits of FHIR and blockchain.

4. First, we’ll discuss Fast Healthcare
Interoperability Resources (FHIR)- a low-cost
integration standard built on advanced
technologies and based on the expectations of
today’s health integration layers.
The main aim of the development of FHIR is to
normalize and ease out the exchange of healthcare
data between healthcare providers to share patient
data ease, even when the providers are using
different software systems for data sharing.

5.  Does blockchain remains to be effective to support
health data sharing?
 Of course, blockchain can facilitate the transfer of
patient health records among various health
systems in a secure and easy to use manner, lower
transaction expenses, and even support medical
tourism.
RELATED: THE MYSTERY BEHIND FHIR IN HEALTHCARE
DATA SHARING

6.  FHIR messages are conveyed quicker, having a
huge advantage while conveying new data to a
non-local system.
 Blockchain solutions have to reserve complete
data locally, however, new exchanges can
require some time (depending on the
technology) to work through finalization and
distribution.
RELATED: ROLE OF FHIR IN INTEROPERABILITY

7.  FHIR assists registries with synchronizing
themselves yet can’t work beyond messages.
 Blockchain solutions can make synchronized
registries in different locations.

8.  FHIR goes about as an assortment of
transient messages that are liable for moving
data between persistent data stores or for
on-request use.
 Blockchain continually stores information,
making it an unchanging record of data as
well as the messages that transform it.

9.  FHIR creates a common language where
advanced systems can easily connect and share
data.
 Many of the big tech industries like Microsoft,
Amazon, Google, IBM, Oracle are seeing the
benefits and stated that they’ll leverage FHIR in
future health technology endeavors to “unlock
the potential of healthcare data, to deliver better
outcomes at a lower cost.”

10.  Apple is using FHIR to enable patients to
aggregate their health records from various
institutions into one centralized place in
their Health app.
 This allows patients to bring their health
information from one system to another if
the health system supports Apple’s Health
app.

11. FHIR provides data formats, and an application
programming interface (API) to connect health
information across different health systems and
benefits healthcare institutions, physicians, app
developers in the following ways.
1. Seamless data flow between healthcare
organizations
2. Easy implementation
3. Provides fast healthcare delivery with secure
real-time access to quality data

12. 4. Structures data for automated clinical support
5. Reduces burden for reporting quality measures
6. Personal health information (PHI) plays a great
role in care decisions.
By integrating it into medical records healthcare
providers can easily leverage real-time data, PHI
stored in devices over time as well as information
in an EHR.
RELATED: FHIR: A NEW PATH TOWARDS HEALTHCARE
INTEROPERABILITY

13. When FHIR is accompanied by blockchain, you
could see a more consumer-centric database. This
would mean that:
 No need for the vendor-specific platform:
Consumers don’t need to select a vendor specific
platform to house their information. In the
same way, the healthcare organizations don’t
need to decide who they’re going to partner
with.

14.  Identities are verified to be accurate: In
today’s healthcare system, the entries of
duplicate identities of the same individual
within a health system has increased. With
blockchain, it’s possible to create a single
identifier for everyone, even if their information
is under different names with different
organizations or there are duplicate records in a
system.

15.  Improved security of patient data: Unlike
FHIR which depends on external encryption to
secure data, blockchain is inherently secure
because of the way the data is passed through
the platform making security breaches of
patient data less likely.

16.  Accuracy of health information is
ensured: Records can’t be manipulated but
can be continually updated, ultimately
providing the most comprehensive picture of an
individual’s health. This will increase data
integrity and ensure that even though many
people may be leveraging this information it
can’t be changed.

17.  Correct Access To Medical Record: With
blockchain, a consumer could consent to
provide access to their medical data with a given
provider. Then their “private key” which is their
medical record number across all organizations
ensures that the data attached to a given patient
is only carried by that patient, thus removing
the human error of connecting medical records
to the correct individual.

18.  Healthcare organizations must revise their plans before
investing in future technologies and ensure that the new
technology uses FHIR.
 This is the right time for every healthcare organization
to realize the real benefits of interoperability. While it
takes some time to make a good decision, the benefits of
interoperability that leverages both FHIR and
blockchain advances are set to turn into a central factor
in future healthcare programs.
HL7 FHIR SMART Integration
Services

19. CapMinds blog

20. www.capminds.com