Traditional data management methods in health care they have left people’s confidential information spread among many vendors throughout their lives. This makes it nearly impossible for people to access their records and make informed decisions about their care. However, the future of health care is moving towards a model where people can create and control their digital identity to obtain benefits and coverage.
how I can digital identity benefit both patients and health care providers?
An individual’s digital identity is their online persona that includes basic information like name and address and more sensitive data like medical records or financial history.
A digital identity would allow patients to manage which healthcare providers have access to their medical records. For example, patients may share information only with their primary care physician and not with other physicians.
A digital identity replaces credentials like a username and password with a verified identity. Verified identities ensure users are who they say they are by matching biometrics with government-certified credentials to confirm the identity holder. The biometric can ensure authentication to a user’s account in this way.
There are several reasons why digital identity is important in healthcare. First, it gives patients more control over their health data. With traditional healthcare processes, sensitive patient information is scattered among many providers with no central repository; this makes it difficult to access patient records and forces them to make uninformed decisions about their care. However, if we move to digital identity methods, patients can choose which providers can access which information.
Second, digital identity would allow patients to get better care by simplifying providers’ access to their records. Today, it can be challenging for providers to get a clear picture of a patient’s health history if she has seen multiple specialists or received care at different facilities.
Third, digital identity would help reduce errors and improve security in healthcare. According to the Institute of Medicine, medical errors cost the US healthcare system billions of dollars each year and cause harm to hundreds of thousands of patients. A major factor contributing to these errors is the difficulty for providers to access complete and accurate patient records. If authorized providers could easily access all of a patient’s records, it would be easier to prevent errors and ensure that everyone was working with up-to-date information.
Finally, digital identity would help stop fraudulent activity in healthcare. Fraud is rampant in the healthcare industry and takes many forms, such as people pretending to be someone else to receive care or billing for services that were never provided. If every patient had a digital identity that medical providers could confirm, it would make it much harder for criminals to commit fraud.
In the future, digital identity will play a fundamental role in healthcare. By giving patients more control over their health data, reducing errors and improving security, as well as helping with fraud prevention, digital identity has the potential to revolutionize healthcare. To realize this vision, providers and payers must implement requirements that accelerate people’s ability to create and manage their unique digital identities. Ultimately, it’s up to patients to take charge of their health by creating and managing their unique digital identities to easily schedule appointments and seamlessly receive benefits and coverage.
siddhartha gandhi is the Director of Asia Pacific Operations at 1Kosmos
(DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by ETHealthworld. ETHealthworld.com shall not be liable for any damage caused to any person or organization directly or indirectly.)
