Healthcare is an integral component of society and continuously adapts to meet patient and practitioner demands. Recently, blockchain technology has garnered much interest as a potential disrupter to transform healthcare provision - but is it hype, or could Blockchain make an impactful difference for healthcare?
Microsoft and Google invested heavily in researching Blockchain, so its value cannot be denied.Guardtime and Estonia's Foundation for E-health have collaborated to securely store all patient medical records on a decentralized platform, enabling doctors easy access from anywhere around the globe. This ensures patients' records remain private at all times.This blog post will investigate how blockchain technology revolutionizes healthcare, its uses for healthcare applications, and any challenges to making Blockchain widely accessible in healthcare industries.
What Is Blockchain Technology In Healthcare?
Healthcare is an expansive field with multiple parties involved, from doctors and hospitals to insurance providers and patient service organizations. Blockchain can make communication among these entities simpler while making exchanging patient records simpler. Blockchain for healthcare uses Blockchain to build an unalterable and decentralized database that stores medical records securely. Patients gain complete control over their information while medical professionals can quickly and securely access this valuable archive of patient care records stored within this blockchain record system.
There have been multiple incidents where sensitive medical data was unlawfully obtained or leaked. However, These high numbers compel different actions and solutions in the healthcare industry. Blockchain technology could be leveraged to overcome issues and find permanent fixes - including fraud risk reduction, transparency enhancements, and making healthcare systems more cost-effective.
Blockchain Benefits In The Healthcare Sector
Securing Patient Data:
Protecting Patient Data is vital in healthcare industries such as medicine. Without accessing accurate records of illness or problems of patients, doctors and hospitals would have difficulty diagnosing disease or treating conditions properly.Since 2024, hackers have unlawfully obtained more than 176.4 million patient records through theft or misuse and sold them on the dark web to criminal organizations for use as ammunition in various crime campaigns. Blockchain makes accessing Patient data simpler while remaining incorruptible by eliminating data-sharing barriers between hospitals and physicians hospitals.
Medical Drugs Supply Chain Management :
Medicines and drugs aren't produced just within hospitals - they're made at laboratories and pharmaceutical companies around the globe before being distributed according to individual country needs. Suppose these drugs become compromised while being transported across a nation by someone unauthorized. In that case, transparency, decentralization, and tamper-proof should be maintained during import/export transactions - an issue solved with Blockchain, which features openness, decentralization, and tamper-proof features that make supply chains transparent & tamper proof; once created for drug transportation, all transport locations will be entered onto this ledger making entire ride transparently transparent.
Single Longitudinal Patient Records:
Blockchain is an unalterable chain, and all forms of patient data will be added to it for efficient tracking, such as disease history, test results, and fees for treatment. Artificial Intelligence may help predict his next visit based on records analyzed using Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence algorithms. Hospitals could offer discounts to customers using precompiled documents while mastering patient indices more efficiently and preventing costly mistakes using Blockchain.
Supply Chain Optimization:
Healthcare industries struggle to optimize supply chains to guarantee authentic medicines are delivered. Blockchain allows food products to be tracked from manufacturing through supply chains, allowing for complete transparency and visibility into product purchases; AI can also be utilized by companies in predicting customer needs and optimizing supply, which builds customer confidence and loyalty.
Drug Traceability :
Blockchain provides the safest, most efficient solution for tracking every drug back to its source. Each block of drug-related information linked by hash values to other blocks is used to prove that data hasn't been altered and that all authorized parties can view transactions made using it; customers using QR code scanners can verify authenticity.
Cryptocurrency Payments :
Blockchain allows patients to pay for medical services using cryptocurrency. Technologies like Aveon Health and Micropayment take advantage of Blockchain to make medical payments possible using crypto assets; Aveon Health takes full advantage of Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Micropayment will track every patient activity related to treatment reexamination.
Decentralized Storage Of Medical Records :
Interplanetary File System (IPFS), a decentralized file storage environment, offers versioned data to be stored securely. IPFS generates hashes known as base configured IED descriptions, which ensure all versions of files remain identical; additionally, IPFS returns hashes that allow accessing websites; due to blockchain files being inflexible while websites change frequently, DNS must also be updated after every change, IPFS overcomes this limitation by mapping website addresses directly onto DNS addresses.
Modernizing Medical Supply Chain Management :
Blockchain's decentralized storage, security, and reliability make it ideal for tracking drug movement, creating an ecosystem of trusted vendors who enhance patient safety through Blockchain integration of production, packaging, and distribution processes as well as transportation information and warehouse data into one unchangeable record that cannot be changed over time.
Improve Electronic Health Record Systems :
Electronic health records systems store digital health information generated at multiple healthcare facilities and collected into one central database. By linking electronic health records together using blockchain technology, interoperability and authentication issues are addressed more efficiently than before.
Improved Recruitment For Clinical Trials :
Researchers have created an Ethereum blockchain system that simulates recruitment throughout the entire process. Researchers can access trial participant information while protecting participant privacy.
Smart Contracts :
Blockchain intelligent contracts offer healthcare industry stakeholders several solutions to streamline processes like claims submission, eligibility verification, and scheduling appointments. Smart contracts provide an effective method for protecting patient privacy by restricting their access only to authorized parties.
- Many healthcare providers accept cryptocurrency today. Patients can pay anywhere and at any time.
- If a patient successfully mines a block, they can earn rewards.
Let's examine some scenarios that highlight how Blockchain has revolutionized healthcare.
Blockchain Healthcare Use Cases
Startups are testing blockchain applications for healthcare applications while others use them to secure larger organizations' businesses. We will explore some real-life application of blockchain technology within healthcare.
Drug Traceability
Tracing pharmaceutical drugs through all stages of production to patients, from manufacturer to patient, is known as Drug Traceability. Blockchain can revolutionize this field by creating an immutable record for product movement; most drug traceability systems presently rely on central databases, which may be vulnerable to hacking or manipulation by third parties.
Blockchain solutions could create an unalterable, transparent record of drug product movements for regulators to quickly locate counterfeit items or recall any fakes that might reach the blockchain in the healthcare market. When combined with Artificial Intelligence or IoT capabilities, such a blockchain solution may enable real-time drug product tracking for greater efficacy in responding to shortages more effectively and efficiently.
Researchers collaborated on a pilot blockchain solution designed to track pharmaceuticals throughout their supply chains by using supply chain activities and verify whether they met quality standards and were counterfeit drugs.
Electronic Health Records
Electronic health records (EHRs) represent another use case for Blockchain in healthcare that could benefit patients by improving care delivery, decreasing costs, and possibly saving lives. Yet these EHRs don't come without challenges - data security being one of them. At present, electronic health records are kept on central databases, which may be compromised and subject to hacking or data breach attacks.
Data about patients is at risk, and real life application of blockchain technology in healthcare can offer a solution by providing a safe and decentralized means to store electronic records. Blockchain allows patients to easily access their medical records while, at the same time, only authorized people may view them. Blockchain healthcare startups have already started developing solutions for electronic health records storage.
Medicalchain, a blockchain-powered healthcare startup based in the UK, has designed an innovative platform to store and share health records safely. Patientory provides similar functionality as part of its solution, encouraging users to manage their health outcomes more independently.
Blood Plasma Supply Chain
Blockchain technology promises to modernize plasma supply chains and offer accurate information to all parties involved. Plasma derivatives play an essential part in lifesaving therapies; unfortunately, their supply chain activities including hospitals and blood banks globally, which complicates things further.
Unwitting errors or inefficiencies within this system could result in plasma shortages when they're most needed, according to a recent report on plasma supply chains expected rapid expansion up until 2024, when total sales will likely top $15.5 billion; any shortage on the market would probably have serious repercussions such as increasing mortality rates.
Blockchain may be the solution to these difficulties. By offering an un-centralized platform on which all parties involved in plasma shipment tracking live share and monitor information live. Public Blockchain could ensure patients gain access to lifesaving therapies. Canadian Blood Services (CBS) and EY Canada have created a blockchain-based system to facilitate real-time visibility and traceability of blood products throughout their entire system.
Prescription Drug Monitoring
Blockchain can also be integral to healthcare by helping monitor prescription medication use. Recent estimates in the US estimate that over 6 percent of adults aged 12 or above used prescription medications over the last year; Blockchain offers a secure means to track prescription meds.
Each time a prescription is filled, a blockchain record is created and stored, which allows authorities to keep an eye on how drugs move throughout society and identify patterns of misuse and abuse. Blockchain could also be used to verify the identities of both doctors and patients so that only authorized people have access to prescription drugs.
BlockMedx, a startup developing an electronic prescription solution built upon Blockchain, enables patients to store and manage prescriptions securely, allowing pharmacists to verify authenticity and track prescription drug movement.
Verification Of Medical Staff Credentials
Credential verification of medical staff is another significant use case of Blockchain in Healthcare according to Statista's estimates of over 1,073,616 licensed physicians in the US - making it challenging to authenticate each medical professional individually with such an enormous workforce.
Blockchain technology is becoming an increasingly popular method to verify the credentials of medical personnel. Credentialing via this technological medium allows organizations to quickly and securely verify medical staff members' qualifications and experiences.
Blockchain provides a permanent record for credentialing purposes, making it possible to track staff career histories over time. Credential verification with Blockchain is integral for quality care within healthcare organizations.
Breakthrough In Genomics
Emergen Research estimates the global blockchain genomics market to reach USD 1.255,3 million by 2027. Data sharing remains one of the critical challenges in genomics, with patients being unwilling to divulge their genetic data due to privacy considerations. Blockchain has provided secure platforms where patients can share this data while controlling who sees their genetic data.
Nebula Genomics, an industry leader, utilizes the blockchain-based platform Nebula Genomics, which facilitates the decentralized sharing of genomic information for medical research purposes and builds up substantial genetic databases for medical studies. For compensation, patients can share their genomic data with researchers. EncrypGen uses blockchain technology to secure genomic data storage for its platform, letting patients determine who has access to their genome data while offering compensation in return.
Supply Chain Management
Blockchain applications in healthcare help address multiple supply chain management issues. At the same time, RFID and EPCIS security measures provide added assurances on drug distribution networks. Blockchain-based technology ensures that active ingredients used to formulate drugs comply with medical standards and can also track counterfeit items like medications and devices. As a means to deal with such problems, multiple companies are now creating blockchain solutions.
Chronicled is a North America firm that uses Internet of Things technology and blockchain technology to track medical supplies. Their platform enables manufacturers, pharmacies, and distributors to monitor medical supply inventory in real-time. At the same time, only authorized individuals may gain access.
Remote Monitoring Security Using IOT
Healthcare industries rely increasingly on Internet of Things technology for monitoring patients remotely. Wearable sensors, known as IoT devices, collect blood pressure, temperature, and heart rate information before sending this data back to healthcare professionals for analysis.
IoT devices may not always be secure; they could be vulnerable to data breaches and hacking attempts that compromise sensitive patient records, creating significant challenges in healthcare. Public Blockchain provides a safe means of sharing and storing patient information securely.
Blockchain can also be utilized as part of an IoT network security framework. One such example of such use cases is the IOTA platform's aim of providing secure environments that IoT devices can operate within by creating an immutable data ledger using blockchain technology, which stores IoT device data and tracks its movement and location. Let us examine some of these challenges before seeing Blockchain and healthcare go hand-in-hand.
Blockchain And Healthcare: Challenges
It is a new technology and hasn't been fully implemented yet. Blockchain is a relatively new technology. There are several blockchain challenges in the health care sector.
Lack Of Technical Knowledge
Users do not expect all users to possess expensive hardware and software. Many are unfamiliar with modern technology; older men and women don't frequently use computers or laptops, while GPUs may not always be present for cryptocurrency mining, posing an extra difficulty for Blockchain.
Solution : Users should become informed on the newest technologies. At the same time, the media should promote these efforts, and companies should reduce the prices of these technologies.
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Lack Of Adoption Of Paperless Method
Many doctors and users prefer paper records. Medical files are organized in filing systems. Some pharmacies do not operate entirely paperlessly - most use prescriptions to track medication; patients keep copies for convenience, and adapting to Blockchain can be challenging.
Solution: Doctors must become acquainted with blockchains to familiarize themselves with this cutting-edge technology. As much paper can be avoided when possible - only necessary documents like X-rays need to be printed off; blockchains provide an efficient alternative when it comes to prescribing medications and keeping records - as these documents are easily stored away for later reference.
Absence Of Government Involvement
Government hospitals are typically owned and controlled by governments; as a result, regulations must be implemented by authorities while some governments embrace new technologies like Blockchain. Unfortunately for such establishments, Blockchain's decentralized distributed ledger design makes it incompatible as no single authority or third party is available to make decisions; rather than being suitable, Blockchain often helps make these decisions.
Solution: Governments must adopt blockchain technology in hospitals to protect data for research or other uses. Blockchain provides security, distributivity, and speed benefits, allowing governments to control patient records for future reference.
Cost Reduction Is Not A Priority
Blockchain technology is very costly; users require expensive hardware and software to mine cryptocurrency using GPUs (Graphic Processing Units), with each block of electricity needed to mine one cryptocurrency block requiring mining efforts that don't offer sufficient incentives compared with their costs incurred, thus rendering this technology very pricey indeed.
Solution: Blockchain firms should emphasize cost reduction as technology progresses and increase incentives to recruit more miners to join.
Lack Of Privacy
Blockchain stores information in its database, and each user owns a copy for safekeeping in case any portion of the network goes down; data will remain safe to be updated later if needed. Many users want their medical issues private, so sharing this data publicly would violate privacy.
Solution: Small private blockchains should be created. Such networks require permission from network administrators before patients may join.
Lack Of Incentives
Miners receive incentives for successfully verifying blocks on Blockchain technology. While Blockchain can offer financial independence, its rewards fall below expectations; users seek out additional mining to increase their cryptocurrency holdings; the average time needed to mine one bitcoin is around 10 minutes, even with powerful machinery; however, incentives generated are much lower than costs related to hardware and software acquisition.
Solution: While Blockchain incentives tend to be lower, companies have developed numerous techniques and consensus mechanisms to maximize them. Companies have implemented many incentive mechanisms.
Lack Of Acceptance For Cryptocurrency
Most doctors do not accept cryptocurrency for payment, with online payment systems not fully established before adopting Blockchain technology and cash flow still existing in healthcare practices. Proper online payment implementation must first occur, and then Blockchain technology must be adopted fully as soon as possible.
Solution: Cryptocurrency should be legalized by the government as an accepted payment option by hospitals, offering patients multiple ways to pay through cryptocurrency.
Cyber Security Lacks
Even though Blockchain technology is highly secure and does not involve third parties, attacks such as 51% or Sybil attacks remain an increasing problem for security-minded users. Hackers target wallets to steal funds, sometimes increasing traffic on the Blockchain network. They even try mining unneeded blocks by mining unnecessary blocks more frequently.
Solution: Hospitals must authenticate each user using unique IDs to mitigate security threats. Furthermore, network administrators should use private blockchains for verification.
Central Healthcare Lack
Healthcare systems today can be vastly dispersed; hospitals may be in various places around the country or world, and managing blockchain technology may prove challenging in such an environment. Without an organized medical record system in place, adopting blockchain tech would be impossible. For instance, If one patient visits hospital "A" at one location and later calls another "A," two blockchains must be maintained between areas to allow easy access to previous records and medical histories.
Solution: Blockchain can provide hospitals with an effective tool to identify and repair faults quickly and reliably. Each hospital should utilize large distributed blockchain storage solutions that make medical records readily available when required.
Lack Of Speed
Blockchain technology isn't very quick - especially with large networks. Processing speed slows considerably when confirmations take too much time and information sharing takes longer.
Solution: Blockchain sizes should be decided upon by higher authorities and should neither be too large nor too small, checking for unnecessary blocks regularly to detect unnecessary traffic in the system. Technicians should test it to ensure no unnecessary traffic is present on its network.
Blockchain Trends In Healthcare
Blockchain technology provides an innovative, decentralized, secure data storage and exchange system. This revolutionary approach could transform healthcare, providing real-time sharing of medical records effectively and safely. Here are a few blockchain trends in healthcare
Healthcare Data Collection Can Generate Huge Volumes Every Day
However, much remains locked away in databases or warehouses, unshared among providers or patients. Blockchain technology offers secure exchange between healthcare providers, stakeholders, and patients, instantly shared files with only authorized individuals having access. It protects patient privacy as well as data security.
Health Records Management
Blockchain technology could revolutionize how we keep health records. Patients gain complete control of their records, while healthcare providers access patient forms for diagnosis and treatment. EHRs built around Blockchain can cut costs associated with maintaining records and improve patient outcomes, leading to significant cost-cutting benefits from using EHRs based on this emerging technology.
Drug Supply Chain Management
Pharmaceutical industries face significant difficulties with drug reproduction. Blockchain technology offers an end-to-end solution, tracking every step from producer to user throughout their supply chains by using supply chain professionals and effective supply chain management to ensure drugs have not been falsified during reproduction.
Medical Research
Blockchain technology offers secure and transparent sharing of medical research data for researchers to use in real-time via blockchain technology for medical research studies, with improved patient outcomes due to this new medium of sharing medical research findings.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine has grown increasingly popular since the COVID-19 epidemic. Blockchain provides a secure and decentralized platform that facilitates safe telemedicine visits; patients can interact with healthcare providers safely via telephone lines and other technologies without fear of violating data privacy.
What Will The Future Of Blockchain In Healthcare Look Like?
Next year or the one after it won't bring revolution-like changes to healthcare - however, the tech revolution is already creating waves within its realm. Blockchain technology continues to progress rapidly and become widely adopted within healthcare settings. As evidenced by this diagram, Blockchain technology is entering its initial phase. Various healthcare mobile apps are adopting it into their practices to give patients control of their data while improving service delivery quality and quantity.
After being implemented in Phase 1, technology is moving into Phase 2, where its deployment becomes widespread - for instance, incorporating it into healthcare supply chains and effective supply chain management process as an example of standardization. Blockchain technology needs to become widely adopted; it has not seen widespread adoption. There have been no concrete healthcare use case predictions for Blockchain; however, when medical boards internationally accept and establish regulations, Phase 3 of adoption could commence.
Phase 4 will focus on optimizing and integrating the business entire process, with all stakeholders shifting toward more decentralized settings. Blockchain healthcare companies that have adopted the technology to streamline healthcare are evidence that decentralization of healthcare is taking hold, with more healthcare organizations adopting Blockchain for storage and exchange purposes in the coming years.
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Conclusion
Blockchain technology has quickly gained popularity as it offers a decentralized and transparent data-sharing approach. Blockchains benefits in healthcare will likely include improving data security, streamlining procedures, and giving patients more control of their information; adoption of blockchain technology into healthcare systems must address issues like scaling issues, regulatory compliance needs, interoperability requirements, and education to become part of everyday practice. Blockchain promises profound changes in patient care as it increases data security. In contrast, streamlining procedures, giving more control back to patients over their data, and giving greater patient control of information; its expected effect will result in enhanced patient care and data security compliance, among many aspects.
