Managing the data that comes with healthcare innovation

Kristina Lynge

OVERWHELMED healthcare systems during the global pandemic forced industry professionals to refocus efforts to keep populations from becoming patients. But this shift to prioritising preventative care over sick care is not without new data hurdles for clinics and labs. 

One can only imagine how these data pools are growing across Southeast Asia. Just two months ago Singapore’s Ministry of Health announced one of its most fundamental changes by establishing Healthier SG. This new scheme connects every individual to a familiar health provider who, through a trusted relationship, aims to be more effective in encouraging behaviour changes for good health and to detect any symptoms of sinister disease earlier.

Today, healthcare stakeholders need more help than ever to keep their attention laser-focused on the real task at hand - keeping humans healthy. A critical first step would be exploring solutions that ensure patients’ sensitive data remain tamper-proof and secure while automating cumbersome workflows for healthcare providers, clinics and labs.   

Management of healthcare data links to patient trust

The public health response to the pandemic has been one of the biggest accelerants of technology implementation into health systems. But with advancements in innovation, there comes a set of unprecedented challenges -- one of which is data privacy and security.  

Security breaches in healthcare were at an all-time high in 2021 exposing 45.67 million patient records industry-wide in the United States, the highest since 2015, according to a Critical Insight report. This can happen right here in Singapore. In November 2021, there was a colossal breach involving one of Singapore’s largest private healthcare providers, causing the data of at least 400,000 people to be stolen and put up for sale. This sparked a much-needed conversation about the critical need for businesses – and especially healthcare providers – to reassess the servers on which they keep sensitive and crucial data of their customers and patients. 

Health data breaches have harmful implications on both individuals and organisations. Besides the financial setbacks organisations have to deal with, these breaches can also taint their value and reputation, according to a study by the National Library of Medicine. Patients who have had their sensitive information compromised are also at risk of identity theft. This might lead them to mistrust the system and withhold important information from clinics, labs and healthcare providers in the future. 

It is of utmost importance that healthcare stakeholders implement the most bulletproof processes and systems to ensure the safekeeping of patients’ sensitive personal data, as their ability to do so directly impacts public perception and ultimately, trust.

Verifiable credentials the way forward

There’s an urgent need for a solution. Let’s turn our attention to verifiable credentials (VCs), which are tamper-proof credentials that can be verified cryptographically. What this means is that people can own and control their health data within a “digital wallet” on their smart device. The ID holder can choose what attributes of their wallet they want to disclose in VC-based transactions: themselves (the holder), issuer, and verifier. 

Ultimately, a patient’s privacy and confidentiality can be preserved at all times – while still providing strong cryptographic proof that the credentials belong to the person. Verifiable credentials also ensure data veracity, which means that the data is accurate, reliable and trustworthy. Leveraging on verifiable credentials in healthcare assures everyone involved, ensuring that all data stored remains tamper-proof and highly secure whilst establishing an automated and direct communication channel amongst the different roles involved in the transaction. 

More than 900 health clinics and labs across Southeast Asia are already implementing a solution for this. Through a digital platform of tools that simplify how health data can be verified and exchanged across organisations and governments, industry professionals are able to execute essential functions while maintaining the privacy of individuals. This ensures the ability of the clinics and labs to enable integrated systems for verifying health data and records with tools such as patient booking, health records and payment gateways, and connecting these disparate systems end-to-end.  

Beyond the safe storage and exchange of data, verifiable health credentials can bring better automation into cumbersome workflows, which is key in countries where there is a rising demand for better healthcare services.

This matters especially for Southeast Asia which has seen rising population growth rates that may soon surpass other geographies. According to the World Health Organisation, the proportion of people aged 60 or above will increase to some 14 per cent and 20 per cent by 2030 and 2050 respectively. It is key that stakeholders efficiently integrate information from a variety of sources for optimised decision-making as higher demands are placed on the healthcare system, as a Deloitte study has highlighted.

Singapore and other Southeast Asian markets can also alleviate challenges in their existing healthcare system with better health data verification. Based on an average of 20 visitors to a clinic each day, switching to tamperproof, revocable and authenticable digital documents from existing PDF or paper certifications can help each clinic save about 60 minutes a day. There are potentially monumental cost savings in the GP industry - in Singapore alone this could amount to S$2.9 million a year.

Data management design should be our catalyst point

Covid-19 catalysed radical changes in healthcare but major steps to manage compounding and newly introduced data is needed to turn momentary innovation dents into positive and systematic steps towards what’s better. 

Healthcare providers must maintain their credibility and trustworthiness amongst the public, starting with how they assure patients that their private information is stored securely.  Using verifiable credentials and existing tools will ensure that complex workflows are automated. This is an important step-change that will help to strengthen and improve Southeast Asia’s healthcare systems, paving the way forward for a safer and trusted future. 

The writer is CEO and co-founder of digital platform Riverr