Unbelievable Benefits of Blockchain in Healthcare

While most people recognize blockchain as the underlying technology used in cryptocurrencies, it has actually brought about some major changes in the healthcare industry as well. Let’s start with a brief introduction first. Blockchain technology can be defined as a tamper-resistant digital ledger (or database) distributed on a network that operates without a central authority.

It is only recently that this technology has been integrated into the healthcare business and early solutions show that this integration can effectively reduce costs, streamline business, and improve access to information. Check out the article below to understand how Blockchain is revamping the world of healthcare!

Blockchain integration in healthcare

Why blockchain?

Blockchain technology is currently being tested in a variety of sectors but has already made huge progress in the healthcare industry. The immutable, reliable, and decentralized nature of blockchain is the reason for its popularity as data is stored using a cryptographic hash.

Applications of blockchain in healthcare

Blockchain has brought about some great changes when used in the governance and business sector of the healthcare industry. It has been used to solve the following problems :

1. Access and storage

Patient history and data is a very sensitive matter that the medical industry has always struggled with. But blockchain offers top-tier security standards for access and storage of sensitive patient data. This will allow different departments of the healthcare industry to work together efficiently and enhance the experience and opportunities for common people.

2. Data collection & analysis

A lot of data is needed to train machine learning software, but data collection is quite tough. Using a scalable, patient-centric, and data-driven blockchain network for this purpose has received successful results.

3. Big data

When it comes to big data, companies are focussing on employing the technology to make healthcare more efficient, improve claims processing, keep directories updated, enhance data curation, and to secure healthcare data exchanges.

4. Cybersecurity

Firms focussed on using blockchain for cybersecurity aim to maintain and manage the data safely and securely.

5. Genomics

The secure nature of blockchain has made it a marketplace for people to sell their encrypted genetic information to help create a wider database, thereby providing scientists access to crucial data faster than ever before.

Other applications of blockchain that are being used today are focussed on industries like electronic health record storage, IT in healthcare, supply chain management, and even pharmaceutical development.

Securing Patient Data

Healthcare must prioritise protecting patient data, and blockchain technology presents exciting opportunities to do so. Patient data may be kept in a tamper-proof, decentralised ledger utilising blockchain technology. Each transaction is cryptographically linked and clearly documented, guaranteeing the integrity and immutability of the data.

Because there is no need for a centralised authority thanks to blockchain, there are less chances of single points of failure and unauthorised access. Additionally, blockchain can provide patients the ability to manage their permission and restrict who has access to their data using cryptographic keys, boosting patient autonomy.

Through hashed IDs, healthcare practitioners may safely and instantly exchange particular patient information with authorised parties while preserving patient confidentiality. Healthcare organisations may safeguard patient data from security breaches and unauthorised use by utilising blockchain’s strong security features. This will help to build trust between patients and healthcare providers, improve patient outcomes, and make the healthcare ecosystem more secure.

Drug Traceability/ Safety

The healthcare business places a high priority on drug safety and traceability, and blockchain technology provides substantial advantages in this regard. The whole pharmaceutical supply chain, from manufacture to distribution and consumption, may be safely tracked by utilising blockchain’s decentralised and irreversible properties.

An auditable and tamper-proof trail of a medicine’s travels may be created by transparently documenting every transaction and transfer of that drug. This helps to ensure its validity and stop drug counterfeiting. With blockchain, stakeholders may access real-time data on medication sources, batch information, and quality control procedures, encouraging transparency and confidence. Stakeholders include producers, distributors, pharmacies, and patients.

This improved traceability lowers the possibility of fake medications reaching the market, enhancing patient safety, and enabling medical professionals and regulatory bodies to respond quickly to any safety concerns or recalls. The pharmaceutical sector might undergo a change thanks to blockchain’s capacity to ensure drug traceability, which would guarantee that patients receive safe and authentic pharmaceuticals while bolstering the overall security and integrity of the healthcare supply chain.

Blockchain companies to know

1. Akiri: focussed on the Big Data industry

2. BurstIQ: focussed on the industries of Big Data and Cybersecurity

3. Coral Health: IT focussed healthcare company employing blockchain

4. Robomed: focussed on building Medicines using blockchain & AI

5. Factom: IT industry-oriented company

6. MedicalChain: company focussed on electronic health records

7. Patientory: Focussed on the industries of Cybersecurity, healthcare and IT

8. Guardtime: Cybersecurity focussed healthcare company

9. ProCredEx: focussed on using Big Data in Blockchain for healthcare

10. Avaneer: dedicated to using blockchain for the Big Data industry in healthcare

11. BlockPharma: dedicated to Pharmaceuticals and Supply chain

12. Embleema: focussed on Pharmaceutical development

13. Chronicled: Healthcare company that used blockchain for efficient supply chain management

14. Nebula Genomics: using distributed ledger technology to eliminate unnecessary spending in the Biotechnology industry

15. Encrypgen: blockchain-backed platform focussed on the data-sharing

Advantages of Blockchain in Healthcare

1. Patient Care: Blockchain allows secure storage and retrieval of data, which would prevent miscommunications or mistakes and lead to a faster diagnosis. Thereby, greatly enhancing patient care.

2. Electronic health records: Blockchain provides a single secure electronic platform to store and share data with encryption. Authorization protocols can further enhance this process as well.

3. Remote monitoring: These electronic medical records can further be accessed and shared around the globe in a matter of seconds, and are also available for patients to review at the comfort of their homes. With blockchain, this process is safe and almost free from cyber-attacks as well.

4. Securing medical supplies: Blockchain allows secure entry of pharmaceutical supplies and aides in tracking them as well.

5. Health Insurance claims: Blockchain can even be used for claim processing as it can present medical events chronologically, without any chance of altering/tampering for purposes of fraud.

6. Disease tracking: It can also help in real-time disease reporting and analysis of outbreak patterns to aid in the identification of transmission parameters.

7. Master Patient indexes: Since blockchain allows data storage in a single ledger, there is almost no chance for duplication. Also, it does not rely on a single key and patient details can be accessed by a lot of keys.

8. Longitudinal records: These include lab results, treatments, ambulance services, and even disease records that can be accessed via blockchain to better serve the customers.

Another advantage of blockchain in the healthcare sector are decentralized management that ensures a transparent and reliable process. Data encryption, robust data, unchangeable databases, data provenance and traceable data are some other benefits.

Challenges of Blockchain in Healthcare

1. Scalability
Integrating blockchain technology into the healthcare industry is a huge switch and since blockchain demands a lot of network infrastructure, this transition will undoubtedly be gradual and time-consuming.

2. Data privacy
Whilst blockchain is perhaps the best and most secure way to store patient data right now. There is a need to ensure that participants have the right to access and erase their data according to their preferences.

3. Data confidentiality
Data confidentiality is of extreme importance and unauthorised access to such sensitive data can be detrimental for any organisation and/or individual and blockchain technology is susceptible to a few kinds of attacks. So, care must be taken for that.

4. Data Immutability
Data on a blockchain cannot be altered, hence large files or the ones which require frequent change should not be on the platform.

5. Scope for research
Electronic health records currently only allow for the automatic updating and sharing of medical information on a single patient within an organisation. This might be extended if the data was arranged so that the topmost layer of the blockchain only contained information that could not be used to identify any individual.

Such a technique would grant researchers access to a wider range of data, including patient cohorts numbering in thousands. Clinical research, public health reporting amongst others would benefit enormously from the availability of such massive amounts of data.

Summary

In this article, we reflected on what blockchain stands for, and how it is capable of revolutionizing the healthcare industry. We discussed a few ways in which blockchain integration is making a difference and a few where it can. The article also focussed on the advantages and challenges that lie ahead of this monumental task.