We’ve all become a lot more wary of how our information has been collected and used over the better part of the last decade. But not all of us: some of us are still using passwords that begin with the word “PASSWORD”, despite being told numerous times to change it. We resist change. It causes us pain. Sometimes it physically hurts us to undergo change. But it never ceases to surprise us and cause us to complain when large organizations, conglomerates, or even entire industries don’t just change the way they do things. We even declare, “why can’t they just change?” It’s not so simple, is it?

Take the health care system, for example. Across North America, more people are without access to a regular family doctor than ever before. Yet, our current health status does not reflect a population that does not need to see a doctor: more and more people are becoming chronically ill and requiring access to the very health care system they can neither afford, nor get access to. The irony is painful.

Security is Slow on the Uptake

But there is another side to the health care industry that is continually changing for the better, albeit slowly. And that’s the current situation related to the security of patient information. The change is slow, however, with many medical facilities across North America still relying on paper charting and human intervention to record patient profiles and medical histories. Despite advancements in technology and new software programs being updated all the time, small-town doctors and even big-city specialists are continuing to avoid the change. Does one have to ask why? It can’t be laziness? They are doctors for crying out loud. What then?

Has anyone stopped to think that maybe they feel secure with their paper charts? Perhaps because they can lock their records up in a filing cabinet, behind a locked door, behind a security system on the front door? That’s a lot of security, isn’t it? But what happens if the doctor’s office burns to the ground, or the charts are damaged in a flood? How can that information be restored or retrieved? Unfortunately, old systems are not that secure either, despite feeling safe to some professionals who still swear by their paper charting systems.

Information Security Can’t Limit Access

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) requires medical professionals to safeguard personal and electronic information, but without the proper access to tools that can do that, information remains susceptible to those who may seek to obtain it. Stem Cell Innovations (SCI) is launching their main ICO sale in the coming weeks that will support the finalization of a blockchain-based platform where health care patients will have secure space to store and access their own medical files as they see fit. Because despite all of the security HIPAA and other initiatives, including other electronic platforms that already exist are providing,

they are missing one key component: they don’t give the patients access to medical records they own.

If this has ever seemed like a strange practice to you, you are not alone. SCI believes not only should patients have the right to manage the records of their own volition, but they should have real-world, real-time authority over those records to determine who, if anyone, gets to see the information held therein. As part of its overall goal of providing worldwide access to stem cell specialists, SCI will include such provisions and permissions to users of the custom platform so that decisions related to their health care remains with the person who is affected by it the most: the patient.

While there may be controversy from areas of the medical community that would remind us that the safest place for a patient record is in the doctor’s office, we’d like to take the opportunity to point out that an informed patient is a healthy patient. Having access to medical records that belong to them is just the beginning. With that information, they can see treatments and consultations from specialists in our extensive network of medical professionals who share our belief that patients should control their own information.

SCI Solves Both Speed and Security Issues in the Health Care Industry

But providing a secure and verifiable space for storage of patient records is just the beginning. Combing incredible technology and innovations in the stem cell domain, SCI will be able to provide cutting-edge treatments and therapies to people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to them, because of location, economic status, or even worse, because their own family doctor isn’t aware of the treatment options. So while change is hard, hindsight has a way of teaching us that leaping was worth it. We are already seeing the benefits of disrupting the traditional method of record storage with the excitement on people’s faces when they realize they will have more control over their health and wellness soon.

For more information about SCI and their upcoming ICO main sale, visit www.scia.io.