US Food and Drug Administration to Study Blockchain Healthcare Applications

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the government agency responsible for approving and regulating medical products, announced today its intent to study blockchain tech.

Revealed in press materials published by IBM Watson Health, the research initiative will find the FDA teaming with IBM to explore how data from electronic medical records, clinical trials and health data from wearable devices could be better shared and audited using a blockchain.

Initial tests will focus on clinical trials and real-world evidence data related to oncological data, according to the statements.

Overall, the partners positioned the trial as one that could one day mitigate the potential of patient privacy breaches during electric exchanges.

The release reads:

"By keeping an audit trail of all transactions on an unalterable distributed ledger, blockchain technology establishes accountability and transparency in the data exchange process."

According to the release, the IBM and the FDA will work together for two years, with the aim to publish their findings in 2017.

Food and drugs image via Shutterstock