Blockchain technology can be utilized to establish an accessible, centralized repository that stores, updates and shares patient health records securely – helping speed diagnosis and treatment decisions, reduce errors and enhance patient experiences.
Blockchain offers several advantages to healthcare, yet some technical, organizational and behavioral economic hurdles must first be cleared away before it can become a practical solution for the industry.
Transparency
Transparency is a core value in healthcare, allowing patients to understand what’s happening with their health and the treatments that are being used on them. So electronic records are mandatory.
One effective means of doing this is through blockchain technology, which offers an immutable record for sharing data between parties while protecting privacy and limiting unwarranted access to sensitive information.
Blockchain can also help manage drug supply chains more accurately, which improves customer outcomes.
Healthcare providers can also use tracking capabilities to trace the sources of medicines, which helps decrease the likelihood of fraudulent products entering the market.
While these use cases for blockchain in healthcare are widely popular, a few issues still need to be resolved – primarily with regards to privacy and data security as well as network efficiency.
Security
Blockchain technology enables secure data sharing among different parties. Implementation can be particularly helpful in the healthcare industry as it helps safeguard patient records from theft or breaches.
Additionally, it can make it simpler for patients to receive insurance confirmation and payment confirmation directly, eliminating the need for third parties to verify payments thereby decreasing identity theft risks as well as underpayments.
Healthcare applications of technology span multiple disciplines; its most prominent applications for the industry involve digitizing and sharing medical records and tracking prescription drugs through their supply chains.
An additional common use case for anti-counterfeit medicine is to prevent its entry into the market; according to some estimates, counterfeit medicine accounts for 10% of medicines worldwide.
Many companies are revolutionizing how medicine and pharmaceuticals are delivered and collected within their supply chains, including Chronicled and Embleema who utilize blockchain networks that demonstrate chain of custody to enable law enforcement officials to track suspicious activity.
Reliability
Blockchain can be utilized to trace the provenance of drugs throughout their supply chains, helping authorities prevent drug abuse. One such network is MediLedger which allows different parties to exchange secure peer-to-peer messages about prescription medications.
The system also facilitates tamper-proof monitoring of prescription drugs, so only authorized individuals have access to them – helping reduce counterfeit drug production while cutting healthcare costs.
Blockchain can also be utilized in healthcare through electronic medical records (EMRs). EMRs store patient information and allow doctors to monitor its progression through the health care system.
Healthcare organizations currently face numerous EMR-related challenges. They must ensure data security while meeting HIPAA requirements, interoperability issues, data breaches, and sharing.
Efficiency
Blockchain technology can enhance healthcare efficiency by reducing administrative costs, improving coordination of care coordination, and providing a secure platform for data exchange between hospitals and patients.
With secure encryption techniques, smart contracts and uniform authorization protocols that protect health records stored on blockchain technology. Only those authorized can gain access to health records stored there – reducing processing times while making information readily available instantly.
At present, healthcare data is typically stored on centralized databases that are susceptible to theft and breaches, making its storage an irreplaceable necessity. Therefore, developing a system capable of securely storing and sharing this information is paramount.
Blockchain holds great promise as an integrated system for health data storage and retrieval, facilitating easy communication among authorized users and improving collaboration and preventing costly mistakes from being made by physicians in diagnosing and treating patients faster than ever.