Health2047, part of the American Medical Association (AMA), has invested $10m in blockchain enterprise Akiri, marking the startup’s first significant funding.

The funds have been provided to create a network-as-a-service platform to aid the safe, secure, and confidential transfer of medical records and other patient documentation across the US.

It was announced recently, that Akiri would begin developing what is currently known as Akiri Switch; a platform capable of verifying data origin as well as data destination, thereby minimising the risk of rerouting or of unauthorised access to the information between these two specific points.

Digital record keeping and data transfer have been cited as one of the most effective ways to improve not only healthcare as a whole in the United States but more specifically the relationship between patient and physician. However, data liquidity has proven to be a major obstacle in achieving this goal.

It is hoped that blockchain technology could remove this obstacle within the healthcare setting. In addition to utilising blockchain technology for patient records, public records and payment records have also been discussed as good candidates for blockchain.

Akiri Switch is believed to be one of the first steps towards widespread adoption of blockchain technology within a healthcare setting.