Italy gets its first scientific register realized on blockchain. Andrea Tortorella (Consulcesi Tech) talks about the advantages of the technology for healthcare and medical education

The blockchain enters the Italian scientific institutes. The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (National Institute of Health) has announced that the data of the Italian platform for the study of viral hepatitis therapies (PITER) will become the first Italian register to be realized on the blockchain technology. «This way – explained Stefano Vella, director of the ISS center for global health – every Italian hepatologist and infectious disease specialist will dispose of the largest clinical research case study, with data of more than 10,000 patients and 100 clinical centers gathered in the platform».

This is only one of the advantages that the application of the blockchain in the healthcare sector can offer. And it was the Istituto Superiore di Sanità to host a meeting about “Blockchain in healthcare”, that involved curious and intrigued physicians, engineers, technicians, entrepreneurs. Among these, there was also Andrea Tortorella, CEO of Consulcesi Tech: «Consulcesi’s history in the healthcare sector started more than twenty years ago and for a couple of years we have showed interest in the blockchain technology. Therefore we are among the first who imagined it in all its aspects».

The possible applications of the blockchain in healthcare are numerous: safe processing of patient data, fight against the counterfeiting of medicines and tracking research data are only some examples. But it might also be used for programmes of continuing medical education (CME), making all the information related to the mandatory updating of each Italian doctor transparent, safe, protected and unchangeable.

Being a new technology, however, it is necessary to train people to use the blockchain, and this is one of the purposes of Consulcesi Tech. Among the many projects started, there is also an MBA in “Blockchain and Economics of Cryptocurrencies”, organised together with the Link Campus University: «It will be launched very soon – said Tortorella – and offer those transversal skills that are needed to apply in the best way this new and pervasive technology».