Abstract
More than 500,000 people experience homelessness in America each day. Local and federal solutions to the problem have had limited success because of the fragmentation of services and lack of valid and timely information. Billions of dollars spent to provide reliable, timely, and actionable information in health care have exposed the difficulty of establishing such a system using the prevalent information technology solutions. However, relying on successful examples of the use of blockchain to help refugee populations and poor farmers internationally, we have partnered to propose an innovative solution to this problem using the case of people experiencing homelessness in Austin, Texas. This paper aims to describe one of the first applications of blockchain technology for addressing homelessness in the United States by creating a digital identity for people experiencing homelessness and engaging emergency medical services and clinical providers. The authors argue that a lack of documentation to prove personal identity and the inability to access own records are major hurdles for empowering persons experiencing homelessness to be resilient and overcome the life challenges they face. Furthermore, it is argued that this lack of information causes misdiagnosis, duplication, and fragmentation in service delivery, which can be potentially addressed by blockchain technology. Further planning for creating a program on the ground with additional funding will demonstrate the results of using blockchain technology to establish digital identity for persons experiencing homelessness.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | e10654 |
| Journal | Journal of medical Internet research |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2019 |
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Keywords
- Affordable housing
- Austin
- Blockchain
- Distributed ledger
- Emergency medical services
- Health information
- Homelessness
- Interoperability
- Transaction identity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health Informatics
Cite this
Using blockchain to create transaction identity for persons experiencing homelessness in America : Policy proposal. / Khurshid, Anjum; Gadnis, Ashish.
In: Journal of medical Internet research, Vol. 21, No. 3, e10654, 03.2019.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Using blockchain to create transaction identity for persons experiencing homelessness in America
T2 - Policy proposal
AU - Khurshid, Anjum
AU - Gadnis, Ashish
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - More than 500,000 people experience homelessness in America each day. Local and federal solutions to the problem have had limited success because of the fragmentation of services and lack of valid and timely information. Billions of dollars spent to provide reliable, timely, and actionable information in health care have exposed the difficulty of establishing such a system using the prevalent information technology solutions. However, relying on successful examples of the use of blockchain to help refugee populations and poor farmers internationally, we have partnered to propose an innovative solution to this problem using the case of people experiencing homelessness in Austin, Texas. This paper aims to describe one of the first applications of blockchain technology for addressing homelessness in the United States by creating a digital identity for people experiencing homelessness and engaging emergency medical services and clinical providers. The authors argue that a lack of documentation to prove personal identity and the inability to access own records are major hurdles for empowering persons experiencing homelessness to be resilient and overcome the life challenges they face. Furthermore, it is argued that this lack of information causes misdiagnosis, duplication, and fragmentation in service delivery, which can be potentially addressed by blockchain technology. Further planning for creating a program on the ground with additional funding will demonstrate the results of using blockchain technology to establish digital identity for persons experiencing homelessness.
AB - More than 500,000 people experience homelessness in America each day. Local and federal solutions to the problem have had limited success because of the fragmentation of services and lack of valid and timely information. Billions of dollars spent to provide reliable, timely, and actionable information in health care have exposed the difficulty of establishing such a system using the prevalent information technology solutions. However, relying on successful examples of the use of blockchain to help refugee populations and poor farmers internationally, we have partnered to propose an innovative solution to this problem using the case of people experiencing homelessness in Austin, Texas. This paper aims to describe one of the first applications of blockchain technology for addressing homelessness in the United States by creating a digital identity for people experiencing homelessness and engaging emergency medical services and clinical providers. The authors argue that a lack of documentation to prove personal identity and the inability to access own records are major hurdles for empowering persons experiencing homelessness to be resilient and overcome the life challenges they face. Furthermore, it is argued that this lack of information causes misdiagnosis, duplication, and fragmentation in service delivery, which can be potentially addressed by blockchain technology. Further planning for creating a program on the ground with additional funding will demonstrate the results of using blockchain technology to establish digital identity for persons experiencing homelessness.
KW - Affordable housing
KW - Austin
KW - Blockchain
KW - Distributed ledger
KW - Emergency medical services
KW - Health information
KW - Homelessness
KW - Interoperability
KW - Transaction identity
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85067419054&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2196/10654
DO - 10.2196/10654
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067419054
VL - 21
JO - Journal of Medical Internet Research
JF - Journal of Medical Internet Research
SN - 1439-4456
IS - 3
M1 - e10654
ER -