Ep. 8: Securing Health Data – Vasja Bocko (CEO Iryo)

Health Unchained Podcast

In this episode, I had the chance to speak with Vasja Bocko, founder and CEO of Iryo, an early stage healthcare IT company from Slovenia. We discuss the IRYO’s journey so far and the importance of permissioning private health data using blockchain technology. IRYO runs on the EOS network and is focused on creating an open-sourced EHR platform with zero-knowledge encryption. I apologize in advance for the sound quality of parts of this recording, there were periods of technical difficulty but we made it through and I think there’s plenty to take away in this episode. Show Notes Introduction of Vasja Bocko and origins of Iryo. Iryo is focusing on interoperability, data toxicity, data ownership. Data toxicity refers to companies and organizations holding health data as toxic assets because they risk data breaches. Personal health records and Iryo Research Portal. How is the data stored on the mobile device and the cloud? Using ZeroPass to ensure recoverability of your private keys (https://www.zeropass.io/). Choosing EOS as Iryo’s foundational blockchain network. Risks of moving healthcare data from centralized systems to distributed networks? What kind of devices will be used to store private keys in the future? Clinical institutions stake tokens– spam protection, institutions would include organizations such as hospitals, clinics and research institutes. In case of emergency escrow mechanism. How does is fit into clinician workflow? Iryo is working to be compliant with OpenEHR standards. Lack of incentives for existing Health IT to adopt open standards because their clients get locked-in to using their platform. OpenEHR (UK based - https://www.openehr.org/) vs. HL7/FHIR standards (primarily US based - https://www.hl7.org/fhir/) SNOMED - Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (Clinical Terms) – is a standardized, multilingual vocabulary of clinical terminology that is used by physicians and other health care providers for the electronic exchange of clinical health information. (https://www.snomed.org/) AI and Machine learning methods – analyzing in place. Integrating with Medical/Health devices. Preserving anonymity and privacy of healthcare data. ICO decisions and crypto market sentiment. Iryo platform traction in the market. Iryo partners with NGO called Walk With Me organization to provide IT infrastructure to refugee camps in the Middle East (https://medium.com/iryo-network/announcing-the-first-deployment-of-the-iryo-system-improving-healthcare-for-refugees-bee8c441e7e6) News Corner: On July 5, 2018 - The International Journal of Health Geographics published an editorial titled Geospatial blockchain: promises, challenges, and scenarios in health and healthcare. Article: https://ij-healthgeographics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12942-018-0144-x Links Website: Iryo.io ICO: Iryo.network Vasja’s email address: [e-mail] Iryo Telegram Group: https://t.me/IRYOnetwork Iryo Medium: https://medium.com/iryo-network