Provider

Amazon, Change Healthcare and Walmart all made moves worth watching as we head into 2019.

The regulatory changes also come alongside Pre-Cert Program updates and roughly a dozen noteworthy digital health approvals.

Emily Vaughn, product development director of Change Healthcare, and Tim Dunlevy, VP of engineering at PokitDok, discuss first use cases and applications for blockchain as well as the process of going from private to public blockchain networks.

Abel Kho, director of the Center for Health Information Partnerships at Northwestern University and co-founder of Health Data Link, says that addressing the fragmentation of data in healthcare is needed to make the most of blockchain technology.

Amazon's 2018 news also included new hires, machine learning tools for healthcare organizations and more. 

Patient engagement, artificial intelligence, telemedicine, virtual reality, and more trends dominated the provider headlines.

From multi-organization collaborations to single-hospital pilots, this year has seen its fair share of experimental blockchain initiatives. 

Sensors connected via Bluetooth to a smartphone app can provide users frequent reports on their foot's temperature. 

Health 2.0's Matt Holt talks results of Health 2.0's EMR API survey. 

Blockchain can protect data integrity and streamline patient consent, but it should be used in conjunction with other technologies and procedures.