Your medical record might be illegally sold for thousands of dollars. Unless it is registered on the blockchain

Did you know that your medical record might be worth thousands of dollars? It depends on the information it contains, of course, but some people out there might be very interested in stealing and copying it. Why? To know about the chronic diseases you suffer, the medicines you take, the therapies you follow and the services you might need. Hackers can enter the database of the facility where you are treated, copy your medical record and sell it on the dark web at an average price of 360$. But if the information is relevant, it will be worth much more, up to thousands of dollars.

It is something that happens in the United States and it means that our medical data is not always properly protected. Blockchain technology might be a solution to tackle this kind of problems. Being a distributed, transparent and safe ledger, it ensures a high level of protection of the data it contains. And since the privacy of medical data is particularly important and required by law nearly anywhere, new technologies like the blockchain should be applied to better protect it.

Massimiliano Barawitzka is Managing Director and Chief Innovation Officer at McCann Healthcare. A few weeks ago he organised a conference on the possible applications of the blockchain in the healthcare sector at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (the Italian National Health Institute), in Rome. Andrea Tortorella, CEO of Consulcesi Tech, was among the speakers.

Dr Barawitzka, during his presentation, talked about this phenomenon and then explained the advantages that the blockchain might offer. With the blockchain, in fact, «breaching the database is much more difficult and copying it is nearly impossible. If it happened, everybody would know. It is like it triggers an alarm. Security means having an alert level that improves the possibilities of noticing this kind of unlawful activities».