Trusted Key Solutions, a blockchain-based secure digital identity company, has successfully demonstrated a proof-of-concept project in partnership with healthcare consortium NH-ISAC, with the potential to reach more than 150 million consumers in the U.S., company officials said. 

NH-ISAC stands for National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center. The project establishes its vision of a mobile HealthID application that onboards consumers with flexible identity proofing and provides them with a single, reusable digital identity to access all of their healthcare services, such as signing up for health insurance, registering with healthcare providers and fulfilling prescriptions online.

"We have been very impressed working with Trusted Key on the power of their platform around identity proofing and the creation of a secure digital identity that can be reused by all of our healthcare partners with validation on the blockchain," said Kurt Lieber, chairman of the NH-ISAC Identity and Authentication Working Group.

Healthcare is a great use-case for blockchain technology because it ensures that a large number of providers can benefit from an immutable source of trust without exposing any private consumer data, and the work with NH-ISAC has proven this to be true, said Prakash Sundaresan, chief technology officer and co-founder of Trusted Key.

"Using NH-ISAC's HealthID mobile app, consumers can create a single identity to sign up for health insurance, schedule appointments at a doctor's office or hospital, and fulfill prescriptions at the pharmacy," Sundaresan explained. "The same HealthID app also gives them password-less multi-factor authentication to all the provider websites.”

Based on the results of the initial proof of concept, NH-ISAC said it is moving this project to a new phase to validate the concepts in a real-world environment.

In doing so, NH-ISAC will help drive adoption of a secure blockchain-based digital identity across the healthcare ecosystem that could benefit roughly 150 million consumers over the next few years, Sundaresan added.

Trusted Key also raised $3 million as part of a seed funding round led by Founders Co-Op, an early-stage venture fund, with participation from Pithia, the venture capital company of The RChain Cooperative.

Founded by former executives from Microsoft, Oracle and Symantec, Trusted Key plans to use this funding to accelerate innovation and business expansion to meet growing product demand from enterprise customers, the company said. Trusted Key's digital identity system leverages blockchain technology to provide the foundation of digital trust.

"Highly regulated enterprises want to bring their customer experience online but have significant drop-off rates during enrollment due to the cumbersome identity validation, or proofing, process," said Amit Jasuja, CEO of Trusted Key. "With the rise in identity theft and breaches, these organizations also face enormous pressures to deliver a secure and convenient experience."

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com