A Blockchain Solution to Coordinate Smoking Cessation Services
Mark P. Martz, PhD & Mohan Tanniru
The inability to access preventive, population-based health care services efficiently and effectively is a global phenomenon. Additional challenges are found in areas where access to technology is limited and financial resources are scarce. As a result, there are individuals and communities across the globe who are disproportionately impacted by a lack of access to preventive care interventions. This observation is seen in Canada, where there are visible concentrations of health care service delivery capacity and resources to meet the needs of the populous, while at the same time regions of Canada where there may be a significant opportunity to enhance and strengthen capacity in order to provide services that meet the needs of community. Information technology has enabled health care providers to improve patient access to preventive services. However, when providers rely on external care providers to provide such services, there are opportunities for gaps in delivering services in a timely manner that can influence patient program adherence. This talk will highlight some of these challenges with the Arizona Smokers' Helpline (ASHLine), a tobacco cessation service provider located in Arizona that delivers education, behavior change, and pharmacotherapy interventions to support successful quit attempts for ASHLine clients. We will specifically discuss information sharing challenges between referring community-based providers and ASHLine as they seek to enroll a patient in the program and explore the viability of implementing a distributed technology architecture, such as blockchain, to fulfill this gap in patient enrollment to improve patient program adherence and quit outcomes for ASHLine clients.