In the field of healthcare, the pace of development is increasing at an astounding rate. Quality health facilities, supported by advanced and newer technologies, are required nowadays. In this case, Blockchain would be important in revolutionizing the healthcare industry. Furthermore, the healthcare environment is shifting toward a patient-centered strategy that emphasizes two primary aspects: always-accessible services and suitable healthcare resources.
The Blockchain work in healthcare organizations in providing enough patient care and high-quality medical facilities. Another time-consuming and repetitive activity that leads to high healthcare expenses that can be easily resolved with this technology is healthcare information exchange. Citizens can participate in health research studies using Blockchain technology. Furthermore, improved research and sharing of data on public health will improve treatment for many groups. The entire healthcare system and organizations are managed using a centralized database.
Until now, the most serious issues in population health management have been data privacy, sharing, and interoperability. The solution to this dilemma is to use Blockchain. When properly implemented, this technology improves security, data interchange, interoperability, integrity, and real-time updating and access. Data security is also a major concern, particularly in the domains of personalized medicine and wearables. Patients and medical workers require a secure and simple method of recording, sending, and consulting data through networks; consequently, Blockchain technology is used to address these problems.
Blockchain’s potential in healthcare
When it comes to implementing blockchains in healthcare, the most crucial thing to realize is the magnitude of the possibilities. When used in the healthcare sector, certain intrinsic features of blockchain technology, including cost-effectiveness, security, and transparency, bring considerable benefits.
Securing patient data is probably the most critical blockchain use case in healthcare. The majority of patient data is now stored in disconnected silos. Your primary care physician, for example, has access to some of your medical information but not to information that specialists like a cardiologist or an OB-GYN have access to, and vice versa.
This problem could be solved with blockchain technology. Connecting to existing electronic medical record (EMR) systems at multiple healthcare providers might be possible with a blockchain-based application. When new data is entered into any of these EMR systems, encrypted data about the data is stored in the blockchain.
Other healthcare providers would only be able to access this information with the patient’s agreement, and the blockchain app would handle the entire procedure.
Supply chain management is another important use area for blockchain in healthcare. Customers may be able to follow things from their initial manufacturing through each stage of the supply chain using blockchain. This would be extremely useful in ensuring that patients do not receive counterfeit drugs.
Streamlining contracts and payments with the various enterprises engaged in the supply chain is another potential use of blockchain in healthcare. Instead of having separate versions of contracts, manufacturers, distributors, and healthcare providers might have shared digital contracts on a distributed blockchain ledger. Any pricing adjustments, which occur regularly in healthcare, maybe updated simultaneously for all players.
Credentialing providers, claims processing, clinical trial management, and public health surveillance are some of the other uses for blockchain technology in healthcare.
In healthcare, how does blockchain work?
Healthcare blockchain applications will operate similarly to blockchains in other industries. A blockchain is a digital ledger that stores a shared record of transactions. These transactions are immutable, which means they cannot be modified in any way.
Importantly, no central authority is required. There is no requirement for a blockchain participant to have a prior relationship with another. For example, even if the insurer had never dealt with the hospital before, it may acquire access to a patient’s medical records housed in the hospital’s EMR system (with the patient’s consent). The first requirement is that the insurer and hospital be validated by the blockchain network.
Ten Major Challenges in Healthcare Blockchain Integration
In order to be used in the healthcare, medical technology, and biopharmaceutical industries, blockchain must overcome ten major obstacles.
1. Data standardization
2. Change management and innovation implementation
3. Interoperability between blockchains is number three.
4. Blockchain patents and intellectual property
5. Protected health information data security (PHI)
6. Permissive and non-permissive blockchain scalability
7. Regulatory bodies for onboarding
8. Smart contract deployment
9. Operational costs
10. Providers of blockchain services
1. Pharmaceutical production and supply chain management:
Blockchain can provide immutable batch records of a drug’s origin and ingredients, reducing errors. These records will be important in the event of a drug recall. The US Food and Drug Administration and IBM are currently employing blockchain to maintain track of vaccine and prescription batch records.
2. Clinical trial management:
Drug clinic trials are complicated. However, by securely securing patient data while providing transparency and communication for and between patients/study participants, sponsors, health care professionals, regulators, and other stakeholders, blockchain has the potential to simplify them.
3. Keeping track of patient information:
More complicated patient conditions can benefit from blockchain technology. Partnership agreements via “smart contracts,” for example, might make patient records easier to manage across a variety of data caches—from patient consent documents to data related to prescriptions, claims, billing, and so on.
Blockchain’s Benefits in Healthcare
The following are the top benefits of blockchain in healthcare:
Security:
Hacking blockchains are extremely tough.
Cost-effectiveness:
Transaction expenses are lowered because there are no middlemen involved.
Efficiency:
Smart contracts that are automated help to speed up transactions.
Blockchain Application for Healthcare:
Blockchain is a relatively new and emerging technology that has a number of unique applications in the healthcare industry. The development of cost-effective medications and advanced treatments for various diseases is aided by smooth, fast data sharing and delivery among all prominent network members and healthcare providers. In the future years, this will drive healthcare growth. The benefits of Blockchain technology in the logistics industry have lately been shown, as have the benefits in the healthcare sector. This is one of the first areas where digital transformation improves and innovations since it immediately affects life quality.
Blockchain’s application in healthcare is still in its early phases. However, the potential benefits are so compelling that blockchains are likely to become more widely used in the healthcare system in the coming years.
Read also :How might Blockchain help to solve the financial sector’s problems ?
