Major South Korean Hospital Will Store Medical Data on Blockchain

One of South Korea’s biggest hospitals will soon be home to a blockchain-based medical services platform. Myongji Hospital, located in Goyang, South Korea, has partnered with a local tech company called BICube, a machine learning platform to carry out the project.

The hospital has contracted the tech company’s expertise to build them a healthcare information exchange system, or “a hybrid cloud that combines a public cloud and a private cloud.”

Using the blockchain will allow the hospital to keep medical records secure and safe in the process of exchanging any medical information through the cloud, according to officials from the hospital. Going even further, they intend to provide patient information through an inter-hospital blockchain, upon the patient’s agreement to release their personal medical history.

The use of a decentralised blockchain to house patient information will likely benefit patients and doctors in times of crisis. In a medical emergency, it would be ideal for doctors and nurses to have immediate access to the vital information that they need about a patient’s medical history. The hospital and the contractor are hoping that other medical institutions get on board.

According to the joint release, both parties are planning to commercialise the service by 2019.

South Korea and Blockchain

South Korea has shown interest before in the technology. A biotech company has started using blockchain to create a genomic big data ecosystem. In September, the Korean Internet and Security Agency and the Ministry of Science and ICT announced joint plans to invest $9 million in implementing blockchain-based solutions throughout the public and private sectors.

Going even further, the Korean government announced earlier this month that it was preparing to devote $35 million of its 2019 budget to developing innovation in blockchain technology. That represents three times as much funding allocated as last year.

With authorities taking a positive stance towards blockchain development, Myongji Hospital and BICube’s decision to create a blockchain-based healthcare information network positions the two parties comfortably on the ground floor for such systems within South Korea.