The Bitfury Group and blockchain-powered medical data marketplace Longenesis have jointly launched production of a blockchain-based consent management system for the healthcare industry. The development was announced in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on April 4.

Per the release, the new product addresses issues with the management of user consent for ongoing and upcoming research endeavors, compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as well as streamlining data collection for medical research.

Once collected, all data and updates to user consent are reportedly recorded on the ExonumTM blockchain with timestamping for future auditing. The solution can purportedly be used both as a full data-management system and as an add-on to existing digital systems for storing user consent. Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Insilico Medicine, Inc., said:

“While the regulations vary from country to country, the research organizations should strive to deploy content management systems that protect the data owners far better than any regulation. At the same time, the consent procedure should be pain-free, rapid, cost-effective and universal to ensure that the patients are fully-protected and educated.”

In February, Bitfury partnered with radiology blockchain marketplace Medical Diagnostic Web (MDW) to create a blockchain-based medical imaging ecosystem. Within the collaboration, Bitfury, MDW and Longenesis aim to develop a platform for maintaining, sharing and securing medical imaging and diagnostics information such as X-rays and CT scans.

Blockchain technology has been actively deployed by organizations around the world aiming to transform electronic health information. In March, South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT and the Seoul Medical Center jointly developed the “Smart Hospital” project geared to improve data accuracy and reduce processing timing for the aforementioned hospital.

Academics from the University of California, San Francisco, also proposed a method of sharing medical data using a blockchain-based system. The system aims to improve the traceability and immutability of collected clinical data, and make it more trustworthy. In addition, the system aims to advance methods for reporting adverse events during research and improve medical record management.