Medical records without borders

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Transferring medical records to another hospital, city, or country is a complicated challenge. Within Canada alone, there are multiple systems for keeping electronic health records, and they don’t all talk to each other. Doctors have to contact healthcare providers directly to obtain a patient’s information. Administrators then have to dig out the requested information, adding time to the whole process. And this is only further complicated by the varying privacy rules that exist from one province to the next.

And we haven’t even left the country yet. If a patient is on vacation, incapacitated due to a severe infection, critical information – such as whether he’s allergic to penicillin – can make all the difference in his care.

But what if your entire medical history travelled with you seamlessly, with just a click of a button?

That’s the idea behind MedLink, a blockchain company dreamed up by Philippe Benjamin-Duranceau, Sehajpeet Lubana, and Rifat Basade – all Master’s of Management in Finance students at McGill University.

“There are so many things to be excited about,” said Benjamin-Duranceau, on the McGill Delve podcast. “It has a lot of potential.”

Using blockchain, they think their company can reduce the friction that exists in the medical transfer process. They pitched the idea at last year’s Innovation for Impact competition, organised by McGill Innovation & Entrepreneurship and the McGill Sustainable Growth Initiative. MedLink won a prize at the competition and is now in the beginning stages of becoming a real entrepreneurial venture.

What is blockchain?

At its core, blockchain is a decentralised and tamper-resistant digital ledger. Every time two computers exchange data on a blockchain network, the transaction is documented and verified by other computers on the network. In cryptocurrencies, this ledger is usually used to track financial exchanges. But in medicine, it can be used for all sorts of other information. For example, it can securely track who accessed a patient’s medical record and when, and what information they requested. Each “block” of data is time-stamped and linked to the one before it, creating a transparent and immutable chain of information.

Smart contracts, self-executing agreements with rules written directly into code, are another powerful feature of blockchain that could benefit patients. They can automatically grant or revoke access to a patient’s records based on their pre-written consent, ensuring that information is shared only with authorised providers, even if the patient is incapacitated.

For patients, this means their records cannot be altered without leaving a trace, and they can be accessed in a secure, standardised format across borders. For hospitals and healthcare providers, this can reduce the risk of patient data silos, duplication, and errors.

“It has very exciting international prospects,” said Katrin Tinn, Associate Professor of Finance and Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative. She’s also one of the organisers of the Innovation for Impact competition. She can easily imagine MedLink’s usefulness for patients who need to transfer their records from one country to another.

However, despite its promise, implementing blockchain in healthcare is not a simple undertaking. Healthcare systems are notoriously rigid, with very little slack to try new and innovative ideas. And regulations around privacy and data ownership vary dramatically from country to country, making compliance a big hurdle. Language is also an important barrier to overcome – any record transfers between countries might also need to be translated.

Is blockchain the future?

Looking ahead, Benjamin-Duranceau and his teammates plan to build a minimum viable product, before launching a pilot program that tests MedLink’s viability and accessibility. The pilot would focus on transferring medical documents between Ontario and Quebec, targeting healthcare providers who already use Electronic Medical Records and Electronic Health Records.

Beginning in these two provinces allows MedLink to test its service in a number of areas, including its ability to navigate different languages.

“There’s more French in Quebec and more English in Ontario,” explained Benjamin-Duranceau. “So the first step for us would be to test it in Quebec and Ontario to see how well we can transfer records from these two provinces. And then afterwards we’d start with the US, and slowly integrate into other countries.”

To sustain the service, MedLink plans to charge a small fee for each transfer, paid by the patient or provider requesting the service. A small portion of the fee would go to the original data owner, incentivising healthcare providers to participate while enabling MedLink to become self-sustaining.

While challenges remain, MedLink’s vision points toward a future where medical records are no longer bound by borders and bureaucracy, but can travel freely and securely to ensure patients receive the best care wherever they go.

To learn more about MedLink’s vision for revolutionizing medical record keeping, and to find out about the Innovation for Impact Competition, listen to the McGill Delve podcast in your favourite podcast player.

The Innovation for Impact competition invites Master’s and undergraduate students to create for-profit and non-profit entrepreneurial initiatives related to the UN’s Environmental, Social, and Governance goals.  Students present their ideas to a panel of local business leaders, who decide the winners. Winners receive funding to further develop their initiative.  Details are here.