IBM and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sign a cooperation agreement to use blockchain to share medical data

IBM Watson Health has signed a collaborative research program with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop a secure, efficient and scalable way to trade medical data using blockchain technology. IBM and the FDA will explore the conversion of patient data from multiple sources, including electronic medical records, clinical trials, genetic data, and medical data contained in mobile devices, wearable devices, and "Internet of Things" (IoT) devices. Currently, this project focuses on oncology data analysis.

Once medical researchers and providers have full access to patient data, transformative healthcare solutions will become possible. Today, patients cannot access their own medical data, let alone share it with researchers or providers. The ability for patients to securely share data with researchers or their own medical providers is a great opportunity for the advancement of healthcare. Blockchain technology is best designed to revolutionize healthcare by providing a higher level of trust in how organizations work.

In this unchangeable distributed ledger, all transactions are traceable, and blockchain technology can therefore ensure the accountability and transparency of the data transaction process. In the past, large-scale medical data sharing was usually limited due to security issues in the data transaction process and patient privacy issues.

Recently, IBM Research released a business value report titled "Healthcare rallies for Blockchains" which interviewed about 200 healthcare industry executives. The report (full text download at CoinWenKu) showed that 70% of the respondents believed that blockchain could play a huge role in clinical trial records, compliance and medical record management.

IBM and the FDA plan to explore the application of blockchain architecture in public health through the exchange of information of multiple data types, including clinical trials and "real world" data. The combination of diverse data from the medical ecosystem can lead to new biomedical discoveries. For example, patient data from wearables and other connected devices can help doctors and caregivers manage population health more effectively.

The collaboration will also expand diverse management of large-scale data in today’s biomedical and healthcare fields. A secure data-sharing ecosystem can lead to new discoveries and improve public health.

IBM has an expert level in the field of blockchain technology and is also a founding member and important contributor to the Linux Foundation Hyperledger project.

The development prospects of blockchain in the medical field are getting better and better, and IBM will continue to develop technical solutions for a scalable decentralized data sharing ecosystem.

Shahram Ebadollahi, Vice President of Innovation at IBM Watson Health, said:

As data diversification progresses, the medical industry is undergoing major reforms. Blockchain technology can provide a highly secure, decentralized data sharing architecture to accelerate industry innovation.

The project is expected to take two years, and IBM Watson Health and the FDA plan to announce preliminary research results this year.

IBM Watson Health

Watson is the first commercial cognitive computing platform and represents a new era in computer technology. This cloud-based system can analyze high volumes of data, understand complex questions asked in natural language, and provide empirical answers. Watson is in a state of continuous learning, constantly acquiring value and knowledge from previous interactions. In April 2015, IBM Watson Health and Watson Health cloud platform were officially launched. IBM Watson Health can enhance the capabilities of doctors, researchers and insurance companies and promote innovation by analyzing large amounts of personal medical data.

IBM Blockchain

IBM's blockchain capabilities are constantly being improved, and we are actively working with other companies to explore business use cases for blockchain. In IBM's view, financial services, supply chain, Internet of Things, risk management, digital property management and healthcare are the areas most affected by blockchain networks.

For more relevant information, please click on the "Blockchain and Healthcare" special topic.