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Aetna, Anthem, Health Care Service, PNC Bank and IBM collaborate on healthcare blockchain 'ecosystem'

by Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | January 28, 2019
Business Affairs

For PNC, cutting the friction for healthcare-related data and business transactions could “occur in way that addresses market demands for transparency and security, while making it easier for the patient, payer and provider to handle payments,” observed Chris Ward, head of product, PNC Treasury Management.

Blockchain was in the news in December, 2018, when Change Healthcare announced that it had acquired the intellectual property and other key assets of PokitDok, a platform-as-a-service healthcare enterprise.

The deal extended the blockchain technology and APIs of PokitDok to the Change Healthcare Intelligent Healthcare Network for payers, providers and independent software vendors.

“This acquisition is about practical innovation to create a more connected, transparent and efficient healthcare system, where patients control their own information,” Kris Joshi, executive vice president and president of Network Solutions at Change Healthcare, said at the time. “As the leader in blockchain for healthcare and with one of the most extensive open API marketplaces available, with PokitDok we are bringing together synergistic assets and technical expertise for delivering additional capabilities to our customers and accelerated value to digital health markets.”

Also in December, 2018, another application of blockchain was announced when Medical Diagnostic Web (MDW), according to CEO and co-founder Michael Averbach, launched a blockchain platform to match radiologists seeking more volumes with imaging centers in need of additional reading capacity to meet the demand of turnaround times.

“Our long-standing goal is to bring transparency and create an open and fair imaging marketplace connecting buyers and sellers through blockchain,” Averbach told HCB News at the time. “We align the system toward their interests and not to the benefit of large commercial entities, which might not necessarily align with interests of the doctors.”

He said blockchain offers a viable solution to the looming prediction of a radiologist shortage. “We’re not inventing anything new with blockchain, but rather, we’re seeking to apply the advantages of this new technology to the imaging sector.”

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