Unleashing the potential of blockchain in Healthcare Industry: Interview with Aeries Blockchain CTO

I spoke to Pankaj Pathak — CTO of Aeries Blockchain Corporation — about the challenges faced by the global healthcare industry and how the company plans to use blockchain to save healthcare organisations billions and make the world a healthier, happier place.

Can you tell us a bit about your background and why you decided to focus on blockchain?

I had been working in the software technology industry for the last 20 years but around three years ago I got introduced to Blockchain in one of the conferences since then I am a big fan of distributed technology. After attaining technical leadership experience in companies like Oracle, Motorola & IBM, I started heading towards entrepreneurship and co-founded companies like Rare Mile Technologies & Moonraft Innovation Lab. I came across various industry trends throughout this journey, however, security and immutability have been major concerns for most of our clients. Blockchain technology isn’t just better than any other technology solutions in the market but also overcome challenges like regulations, privacy, complexity, scalability, and transparency making it the most disruptive technology of the era. After digging deep into this technology, I am totally convinced by the disruptive power of blockchain and its implementation having a long-term horizon.

How are you going to solve the problems in healthcare through blockchain?

Being immutable, trustless, decentralized and distributed blockchain technology gives wide chances to battle fraud, cut operational expenses, optimize procedures, kill duplication of work and enhance transparency in the healthcare business.

Blockchain technology may not be the panacea for healthcare industry challenges, but rather it holds the possibility to save billions of dollars by enhancing current workflows and disintermediating some staggering expense gatekeepers.

The principle sectors where blockchain technology has an incredible potential for enhancing the healthcare business are:

● Clinical Health Data Exchange and Interoperability ● Cases Adjudication and Billing Management ● Drug Supply Chain Integrity and Provenance ● Pharma Clinical Trials and Population Health Research ● Cyber Security and Healthcare IoT Can you tell us, how are you going to push this to the mainstream?

Aeries Blockchain Corporation is developing a platform based on blockchain technology to solve various persisting challenges in the healthcare Industry. I would summarize our healthcare solutions based on blockchain technology in five key data-driven areas: Electronic health care records (EHR) Aeries intend to make a platform which will tackle the issue of health data exchange. This platform will empower distinctive healthcare agents, such as doctors, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacists and insurers to ask for consent to access and interact with medical records.

Medical Supply Chain Management (MSCM) Aeries offers a unique networking marketplace that unites healthcare suppliers and providers for simplified, proficient and cost-effective exchanges that assemble organizations.

Automated Claims Adjudication and Billing Management Around 6% of every single medical claim are denied because of inadequate or incorrect data.

The blockchain system could automate the claim procedure and dissipate administration layers to decrease transaction costs and frauds. By utilizing a "smart contract" structure, Aeries blockchain will help flawlessly adjudicate payers' and patients' provider payments for a more cost-productive process.

Interoperability Aeries plans to beat current patient data interoperability issues and assemble the massive amounts of patient data that can be encouraged to help population health initiatives using blockchain.

Drug Supply Chain Integrity and Provenance Another primary territory that Aeries will improve utilizing blockchain technology is drug supply chain integrity. It is primarily centered on eliminating of counterfeit drugs proliferation and increasing efficiency in the pharmaceutical industry.

Finally, will blockchain shape the future of healthcare?

Blockchain technology can possibly shape the future of healthcare, setting the patient at the center of the healthcare ecosystem and enhancing the security, privacy, and interoperability of health data. This technology could give another model to health information exchanges (HIE) by making electronic medical records more proficient, disintermediated, and secure.

About Pankaj

Pankaj Pathak is a serial entrepreneur, innovator and technology evangelist. He has over 18 years of technical leadership experience with companies like Motorola & IBM. He was the cofounder of Rare Mile Technologies & Moonraft Innovation lab and filed patents in distributed computing.