Using Blockchain Tech in Healthcare

October 1, 2019 by


Healthcare: Ready for Blockchain Technology

Healthcare requires prompt access to confidential patient information – lives can sometimes depend on it. Easy access comes at a price, though, as easily accessible information puts patient privacy and hospital data at risk. Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by providing access to secure, accurate information.
Health information technology is becoming more crucial to the healthcare system, as doctors and nurses now spend more time typing than talking to patients, according to a study by Mayo Clinic. Health information technology is also important to patients who go to different practitioners and specialists who may not have access to the electronic healthcare records (EHR) system their primary physicians may use. Lack of access to health records can lead to repeat lab work, dangerous drug interactions, and more. Blockchain can help eliminate unnecessary repeat lab work, manage medications from different prescribers, and provide a patient’s vaccination history.  Access to healthcare information is also essential for insurance providers and researchers. Many are turning to blockchain.

What exactly is blockchain?
A very succinct history of the platform; An unknown person or group calling itself Satoshi Nakamoto started blockchain technology in 2009, it was started as a way to move the digital currency, bitcoin. In the years since, the uses for blockchain have expanded to exchange other types of digital assets, such as data.
Blockchain is an activity log that is tamper-proof, time-stamped and shared across a network of computers. Each transaction going into the log, or central database, is enclosed in a block and linked in chronological order to create a public chain, hence the name “blockchain.”
The blocks cannot be deleted, changed or otherwise modified, which means that blockchain creates an indelible write-once-read-only record that a transaction occurred.

Blockchain has three main components:

1.  Digital transactions – the information or digital asset stored in the blockchain
2.  Distributed network – a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture featuring “nodes” of participants, each of whom stores a copy of the blockchain and is authorized to validate and certify any digital transactions on the network
3.  Shared ledger – the participants record ongoing transactions in a ledger shared by all the members, who verify the transactions using algorithms; the transaction is added to the record after a majority of members validate it

How Blockchain Technology can Improve Healthcare
Information management is one of the largest problems facing healthcare today. Spread across multiple and sometimes-inaccessible systems, information may not be available when needed most; unfettered access to this information can be a security risk. Blockchain could change all that by creating a decentralized system accessible to only those who hold the right keys.
The lack of a central administrator creates transparency, in that no single individual or organization can change the information, as could happen if the information were to live in the physical memory of one system. Furthermore, all of the members of the blockchain remain in control of their transactions and information.
Each member connected to the blockchain has two keys – a public key, which acts as a visible identifier, and a secret private key. One must have the private key to unlock a member’s identity and see what information on the blockchain is relevant to that member’s profile. This cryptographically links the two keys in such a way that only those who have the secret private key can identify the member.

As healthcare institutions provide services to patients, they track clinical information in their existing health IT systems. The institution then use application programming interfaces (APIs) to direct the patient’s public (non-identifiable) ID and standard data fields to the blockchain, where the blockchain stores each transaction by the patient’s public ID. Computer software processes the incoming transactions to make them searchable.
Healthcare institutions and other organizations can use APIs to query the blockchain directly to view non-identifiable patient information, such as age, gender and medical condition. Analysis of the information gained from these queries can lead to new insights into healthcare.

Patients who wish to share their identity with healthcare organizations may do so by providing their private keys, which allows the healthcare organizations to unlock patients’ data. The data remains unidentifiable to those without the private key.

Today, most healthcare organizations rely on health information exchanges (HIEs) and other methods of centralized data aggregation to gather wide scale health data. Blockchain creates a decentralized standardized method, which ensures accountability and easy access. The structure of blockchain offers a unique combination of access scalability, security, and data privacy that can facilitate the sharing and security of healthcare information. Many more uses will unfold for blockchain technology in all aspects of healthcare, research, laboratory management, record keeping, accountability, Q.A., and even insurance.

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Frank Magliochetti owes his professional success to his expertise in two areas: medicine and finance. After obtaining a BS in pharmacy from Northeastern University, he stayed on to enroll in the Masters of Toxicology program. He later specialized in corporate finance, receiving an MBA from The Sawyer School of Business at Suffolk University. His educational background includes completion of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and the General Management Program at Stanford Business School. Frank Magliochetti has held senior positions at Baxter International, Kontron Instruments, Haemonetics Corporation, and Sandoz. Since 2000, he has been a managing partner at Parcae Capital, where he focuses on financial restructuring and interim management services for companies in the healthcare, media, and alternative energy industries. Earlier this year, he was appointed chairman of the board at Grace Health Technology, a company providing an enterprise solution for the laboratory environment.

Mr. Frank Magliochetti MB
Managing Partner Parcae Capital
www.parcaecapitalcorp.com
www.frankmagliochettinews.com

Filed Under: Blockchain Technology, Featured, Healthcare Innovations, News Tagged With: , ,

Healthcare: Precision Medicine Has Arrived

September 20, 2019 by

Will Precision Medicine Become Commonplace?

Will precision medicine become commonplace?

Precision medicine is a relatively new and powerful approach to medical care. Given its current growth rate and potential, precision medicine will likely be commonplace very soon.

Medicine is not always a one-size-fits-all solution – what works for one patient may not work at all for another. Individual differences in biology, environmental factors, and lifestyle may play a role in the risk of disease, affect symptoms, and even influence how well treatment works.

Treatments that shrink tumors or alleviate symptoms of arthritis in some patients, for example, are not always effective for other patients. Precision medicine aims to overcome the influences of biology, environment and lifestyle by matching the right treatments with the right patients.

Precision medicine involves the use of extensive medical testing that identifies unique differences in a patient’s condition, followed by the development of a treatment plan specific to that patient. In other words, doctors will run tests to identify unique characteristics that might make a patient more susceptible or resistant to certain diseases or treatments, and then create personalized treatment plans for each patient.

Precision medicine allows researchers and prescribers to predict which treatments and prevention strategies will work best to treat diseases in which groups of people. In contrast, the one-size-fits-all approach uses treatments and disease strategies designed for the average person.

Past, Present and Future of Precision Medicine

While the term “precision medicine” is relatively new, the concept of providing patient-specific treatment has been around for decades. For example, doctors perform blood tests to match patients with the right type of blood; they have been doing this since the early 1900s.

The advent of modern personalized medicine began about 20 years ago, when oncologists began using targeted therapy to treat HER-2 positive breast cancer. Precision medicine got a boost in 2015 with the introduction of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Precision Medicine Initiative. NIH introduced the initiative in hopes of moving “the concept of precision medicine into clinical practice.” In other words, the initiative intends to make precision medicine commonplace.

The targeted, personalized approach already has a significant effect on many areas of medicine, including genomics that studies genes and their function, medical devices, and laboratory testing. Patients already benefit from precision medicine, especially patients with cancer. Doctors can use genetic testing to determine if a patient is at high risk for developing certain kinds of cancer, for example. When tests show that a person has a higher risk of cancer, a doctor can suggest ways to lower that risk. Cancerous tumors also provide genetic information that helps doctors develop more effective personalized treatment plans.  

The Precision Medicine Initiative has helped spur the commercial growth of precision medicine. The number of commercialized lab tests, known as predictive biomarker assays, is increasing dramatically. Predictive biomarker assays help doctors, pharmaceutical researchers and manufacturers predict the effectiveness of a treatment in any given patient group. These tests also help classify patients’ unique characteristics, which allow researchers and doctors to come up with the safest, most effective treatment for those specific patients.

Advancements in genome sequencing, an increase in consumer-focused healthcare, and innovations in healthcare information technology (IT) and connectivity have fueled explosive growth in the precision medicine market. Market Watch reports the value of the global precision medicine market at USD 47.43 billion in 2019, and projects the market will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.3 percent to reach a net market size of USD 119.90 billion in 2025.

Precision medicine will also stimulate further research exploring the genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that influence the development of disease and response to treatment. This research will likely bring about innovations that make precision medicine commonplace in clinical medicine.

SOURCES

Frank Magliochetti News

Frank Magliochetti News will be centered around reporting on trends, innovations, and news in the healthcare and bio/pharma industries.

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Earlier this year, Frank was appointed chairman of the board at Grace Health Technology, a company providing an enterprise solution for the laboratory environment.

Earlier this year, Frank was appointed chairman of the board at Grace Health Technology, a company providing an enterprise solution for the laboratory environment.

Frank Magliochetti owes his professional success to his expertise in two areas: medicine and finance. After obtaining a BS in pharmacy from Northeastern University, he stayed on to enroll in the Masters of Toxicology program. He later specialized in corporate finance, receiving an MBA from The Sawyer School of Business at Suffolk University. His educational background includes completion of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and the General Management Program at Stanford Business School. Frank Magliochetti has held senior positions at Baxter International, Kontron Instruments, Haemonetics Corporation, and Sandoz. Since 2000, he has been a managing partner at Parcae Capital, where he focuses on financial restructuring and interim management services for companies in the healthcare, media, and alternative energy industries. Earlier this year, he was appointed chairman of the board at Grace Health Technology, a company providing an enterprise solution for the laboratory environment.

Mr. Frank Magliochetti MBA
Managing Partner
Parcae Capital
www.parcaecapitalcorp.com
www.frankmagliochettiNews.com


Filed Under: Featured, Healthcare Trends, Medicine, News Tagged With: , ,

Color Compounds in Foods Lowering Cancer Risks

January 30, 2017 by

Color Compound in Some Fruits and Vegetables Could Lower Lung Cancer Risk in Smokers

A pigment in oranges, sweet red peppers, and other fruits and vegetables may lower the risk of lung cancer in smokers, according to a new study.

Nicotine is the primary addictive component of tobacco and some e-cigarette liquids. Medical scientists believe nicotine contributes to cancer promotion and progression by activating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. The study results suggest that the color compound, known as beta-frankimagliochetti-healthcare-reportcryptoxanthin (BCX), reduces the number of these receptors. This means eating fruits and vegetables high in BCX might reduce the risk of lung cancer resulting from smoking.

Doctors diagnose about 222,500 new cases of lung cancer in the United States each year, according to the American Cancer Society, and more than 155,000 Americans will die from the disease each year. The American Lung Association notes that male smokers are 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer than are men who do not smoke, and female smokers are at 13 times greater risk of developing lung cancer than are non-smoking women.

Causing approximately 7,330 deaths among nonsmokers each year, exposure to secondhand smoke is also a risk factor for lung cancer.

Nicotine and the Growth of Lung Tumors

Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 compounds and many of these substances, upon inhalation, act as carcinogens to damage the cells lining the lungs. While nicotine does not cause lung cancer directly, the addictive compound can promote lung tumor growth.

Study co-author Xiang-Dong Wang, of the Jean Mayer United States Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, MA, and colleagues provide more insight into how nicotine promotes lung cancer.

frankmagliochetti-helathcare-ReportWhen inhaled, nicotine binds to nicotinic acetylcholine receptor α7 (α7-nAChR), which is a nicotine receptor lying on the surface of the lungs. The binding action prompts a signaling cascade that results in the proliferation of cells and the formation of new blood vessels. Cell proliferation and blood vessel formation are processes involved in the growth of cancer.

Nicotine also increases the production of nicotinic receptors, actually creating more α7-nAChR on which to bind. Providing more nicotinic receptors strengthens the signaling cascade, further encouraging the growth of lung cancer cells. In other words, the more a person smokes or suffers secondhand exposure to smoke, the more receptors he or she develops, the stronger the process encouraging the growth cancer.

Wang and colleagues think that consuming BCX could effectively reduce the number of α7-nAChR receptors on the lungs, thereby decreasing the potential growth of lung cancer cells.

BCX reduced lung tumor growth in laboratory mice

BCX is a carotenoid that gives yellow, orange and red fruits and vegetables their color. Oranges, tangerines, butternut squash, and sweet red peppers contain beta-cryptoxanthin.

In an earlier study, Wang and a team of researchers observed an association between eating foods rich in BCX and a lower risk of lung cancer in humans. In this study, the team focused on pinpointing the mechanisms underlying the link between a BCX-rich diet and lowered risk of lung cancer in smokers.

The scientists administered a daily injection of a carcinogen derived from nicotine to two groups of mice. The test group of mice also received a daily dose of BCX before and after the nicotine injection. The researchers found that, compared with the mice that did not receive the carotenoid, the test group experienced a 52-63 percent reduction in lung tumor growth.frank magliochetti-healthcare-report

The researchers determined 870 micrograms, which is the equivalent to one sweet pepper or two tangerines per day for humans, as the most effective daily dose of BCX for reducing lung tumor growth.

The team then tests BCX on human lung cancer cells, both with and without α7-nAChR. They discovered that lung cancer cells with α7-nAChR receptors were less likely to spread after exposure to the color compound, as compared with lung cancer cells without those receptors.

Further research could provide a better understanding of how consuming foods rich in beta-cryptoxanthin might affect the development of lung cancer in humans.

Source

http://cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjournals.org/content/9/11/875

http://www.cancer.org/cancer/non-small-cell-lung-cancer/about/key-statistics.html

http://www.lung.org/lung-health-and-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/lung-cancer/resource-library/lung-cancer-fact-sheet.html?referrer=http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315404.php

Frank Magliochetti is Managing Partner for Parcae Capital

  • North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry.  Frank plans to release new sites dedicated to the industry. Frank currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.

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