[icebraining]

The "problem" of standardized medical record storage and distribution has been thoroughly solved in France. There you have a nationwide system of healthcare and there are largely no issues with medical record access.

What happens when a French citizens moves to another country? Some people even live a few months every year on different countries, what happens then?

[PeterisP]

Whatever solution you'd propose for ensuring global adoption and interoperability of hypothetical blockchain-based medical records would also work just as well (or better) for any other type digital healthcare records. That's mostly a political problem, and not one where blockchain provides any advantage.

[icebraining]

I don't disagree, I don't think the blockchain makes any sense here (or mostly anywhere). I just disagree that France has "solved" the problem.

[PeterisP]

One could argue that France is one of multiple examples that demonstrate that the technical parts of the problem are already solved. If we actually wanted to (IMHO we don't), had the political decision to implement global interchange of health data, and had solved the political problems required to get the resources and will to implement it, then we could just copy and deploy the solution of France or Estonia or whatever, knowing that the technical and organizational structures are reasonably appropriate, and there's no need to suppose that something fundamentally technically different is needed, there are no obvious technical problems that need solving.

[icebraining]

I don't know who "we" are. But the solution proposed with the blockchains and stuff - misguided as I may think it is - had the goal of allowing general interoperability / portability of data among any providers, potentially across the world.

That France has some software that works well for their small corner of the world with their specific centralized model of healthcare is great for them, but doesn't solve the same problem. And it certainly doesn't mean you could necessarily apply it to the US, even if there was political will to do so.

[dboreham]

Except almost nobody does that.

[icebraining]

Perhaps. I know at least three retirees doing that (spending winters with their family abroad), and apparently there's a term for it in the UK ("mouseholing"), but I can't find any statistics.

[dboreham]

That's seasonal living between two places (e.g. Snow Birds). Presumably there is already a workable solution for those folks. Parent was talking about people who randomly move country to country.

[icebraining]

I am Parent, and I wasn't, even if I didn't explain myself clearly :)

Is there a workable solution? I don't have any experience with the French system, but between the two EU countries I know, there's no good solution, or at least none was offered by doctors on either side.

[dboreham]

I believe that in the US/Canada the solution is for the patient to carry a backpack full of medical records. Honestly though based on my experience with the medical system in several countries, and talking to medical provider friends, I'm not sure records, apart from very recent ones, achieve much anyway. e.g. Dr B won't trust that Dr A made the right diagnosis or that an old test result is to be trusted, and so on.

Personal example : I migrated (legally) from the UK to the USA 20 years ago. USA wants you to prove that you have vaccinations. However they don't actually take UK medical records as proof. Easier to just make everyone have the vaccinations again!