Darwin McDaniel
Paul Klinker, solutions architect for the federal health civilian business at ManTech International, has said the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs should adopt blockchain technology to manage and secure electronic medical records.
He wrote in an article published Tuesday DoD and VA face a data management complexity due to the departments' large-scale geographically dispersed healthcare systems.
Klinker noted ManTech proposes the adoption of blockchain technology to locate patient data, identify duplication and use a consent model in a single information technology system, as well as to simplify IT interoperability across military and civilian hospital systems.
DoD provides healthcare services to 9.4M beneficiaries worldwide and VA manages more than 22M patient records.
"Blockchain is already being used in the commercial world and in the civilian sector, including in agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control," Klinker said.
"We at ManTech believe it’s now ready for the DoD and the VA to embrace blockchain to help solve some of their data problems as well."
