Major US Health IT Provider HMS Partners With Blockchain Startup Solve.Care

Major health information technology provider for the United States government, HMS Technologies Inc. (HMS) has partnered with blockchain startup Solve.Care. The development was announced in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on April 22.

As part of the collaboration, HMS will reportedly integrate Solve.Care’s blockchain platform into their federal health information technology (HIT) initiatives in a bid to reduce government healthcare costs and improve interoperability and accessibility.

Bill Kirkpatrick, CEO of HMS, said that the partnership will “enable disparate HIT applications to share secured health data via patient authorized access using unsecured Internet connectivity, improving care coordination while enhancing digital healthcare profiles and streamlining access to virtual healthcare services.”

Last month, Solve.Care partnered with ridesharing app Lyft to tokenize healthcare-related transport arrangements. The partnership with Lyft will purportedly allow Solve.Care users to schedule Lyft rides to doctors’ clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies with automated payments using native utility token SOLVE via their Solve.Care digital wallets.

The healthcare industry has been actively adopting blockchain technology aiming to improve sharing, analyzing, or verifying patient data and supply chains. Recently, Portland State University researchers made a blockchain protocol to prevent counterfeit pharmaceuticals from filling the market. The proposed solution represents a blockchain-based chain of information, with only users possessing a specific key to access or modify the stored data.

A major hospital in South Korea’s capital city of Seoul announced plans last month to launch a blockchain-based platform that aims to improve its medical services. The project dubbed “Smart Hospital” was jointly developed by the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT and the Seoul Medical Center, will purportedly improve data accuracy and reduce processing timing for the aforementioned hospital.