Blockchain has become a hot topic in corporate circles. Numerous analyses show that the implementation of Blockchain can increase overall performance, save money and improve efficiency for many industries. A report states that industrial blockchain investments will be $13.7 billion by 2023. Let's look closer at technology before we get into the healthcare industry.
What is Blockchain?
The Blockchain is a shared ledger of transactions between peers that are immutable and can be found in digital databases. Blockchain relies on cryptographic techniques that allow each network participant to interact with one another without preexisting trust between them. Blockchain does not have a central authority. Transaction records are distributed among all participants.
All participants will know about the interactions with the Blockchain and the information added to the Blockchain must be verified by the entire network. This allows for collaboration among network participants as well as recording an audit trail that cannot be changed.
Healthcare is an industry that has seen several breakthroughs in blockchain technology. These innovations have been designed to increase patient satisfaction and access to healthcare services. Blockchain, one of the most recent innovations in Healthcare, has begun to have an impact on the healthcare industry by revolutionizing the infrastructure for information that is the basis for all services. Blockchain in healthcare offers great promise to improve the security, reliability, and efficiency of health information systems.
A blockchain is a system of distributed ledgers that stores transactions within a database of "blocks" that have been "chained". After a block of data has been entered, another block that links to the first block creates a chronology. These chained data blocks can store many different types of information. Still, the most popular is transactional data, like product inventories or financial records.
- Blockchains are different from databases because they store information in blocks, not tables. It creates a permanent timeline of transactions.
- Decentralization allows data on blockchains to be easily shared. Blockchains are also centralized and private for use only by one entity.
- Self-correcting blockchains. The records of the blocks that follow the compromised block are compared to each other to find the problem.
- The Blockchain is secure. Blockchains are secure.
Why Blockchain for the Healthcare Sector?
The Blockchain is a system of distributed ledgers that stores transactions on a database consisting of blocks. These blocks are linked together by their hash values to create a structure similar to a chain. Blockchains have many characteristics that make them an excellent choice for healthcare systems:
- Secure: Blockchain is an encrypted network. After a block has been added to the Blockchain, the majority of nodes will need to agree to change the data contained in that block.
- Decentralized: Blockchains are decentralized networks of nodes. No one in the network has to know or trust anyone else. Every member of the network shares the same data with other members. The majority of nodes will reject a changed ledger if a network member makes it.
- Auto-Correcting: If the data is altered in one block, the other blocks are checked and compared to find the source of the problem.
- Distributed: A distributed ledger is where computers independently record, share and synchronize transactions on their electronic ledgers.
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Benefits of Blockchain in Healthcare
Blockchain is a chain of blocks that are linked using hashing. Every block contains a timestamped record of data such as confidential, financial or Healthcare information. A group of users manages the Blockchain network on a network that is decentralized. Transparency is achieved by making all information available to users on a decentralized ledger. Important and confidential information is encoded using cryptographic algorithms such as RSA-256.
Blockchain has been the most talked about technology in Internet 4.0 because it's improved internet security dramatically. Security breaches can be cut by up to 99% when you use Blockchain in your applications or services. Computers work on binary numbers, which can be easily hacked. Blockchain encodes data so that it is difficult to decode. This article will explore the advantages of blockchain technology in the healthcare industry.
Blockchains have many pros for the healthcare industry:
- Making electronic health records more affordable, accurate, secure and easier to maintain.
- Allowing medical researchers to collaborate and share their research, as well as gaining consent for the collection of data and access.
- Protecting the data of a healthcare network from cyberattacks and ransomware.
- Making healthcare supply chains easier to manage and cheaper to operate.
Other main advantages include:
Secure Patient Data
In the health sector, the security of patient data is critical. The doctors and hospitals may have difficulty identifying the illness or condition of the patients if the records are tampered with. Hackers stole credit card information from banks and then used it in an unethical way. The Blockchain is an incorruptible, distributed and tamper-proof system that makes it easier to access patient data.
Medical Drugs Supply Chain Management
The supply chain management of medical drugs is not a hospital-based activity. These drugs are manufactured in laboratories and pharmaceutical companies all over the world. The drugs are then distributed to various countries to meet their requirements. What if the drugs are tampered with while being transported across the country by someone?
The medical supply chain must be transparent and tamper-proof for importers and exports. This problem is eliminated by Blockchain, which has many features, including transparency, decentralization and tamper-proof. After a drug's distributed ledger has been created, every transporting point from the point of origin to the destination will be added to the Blockchain. This makes the entire transportation transparent.
Singular Longitudinal Records of Patients
Since the Blockchain is made up of blocks, each type of patient record will be added to the ledger. Recordings such as lab results, disease histories, fees for treatment, etc. Machine Learning and Artificial intelligence can be used to forecast the next disease visit based on a patient's previous visits. By analyzing the records, hospitals can offer discounts to customers who use these records. It will also help to master patient indexes, making records more efficient and preventing costly mistakes.
Supply Chain Optimization
The primary challenge for the healthcare industry is to optimize the supply chain. This will ensure that medicines are authentic. The Blockchain allows the food to be tracked from the manufacturing stage through the entire supply chain. It allows for complete transparency and visibility of goods. It can be used to help businesses apply AI, predict better demand and optimize supply. At the same time, it increases the customer's confidence.
Drug Traceability
Blockchain is the best, most secure, and most reliable solution for tracking every drug back to its source. A hash will link each block of drug-related data to another block. The hash value is used to ensure that data is not tampered with. All authorized parties can see the transactions on the Blockchain. By scanning the QR codes and searching for all necessary details, such as the manufacturer's information, medicine buyers can verify the authenticity of their purchased products.
Blockchain Payments
Blockchain allows you to pay in cryptocurrency for medical services and receive assistance. There are technologies that use Blockchain and the benefits of Blockchain technology. Micropayments will be used to record all the details of the patient's activities during their treatment review.
Decentralized Storage of Medical Records
Interplanetary File System (IPFS), a decentralized file storage system, allows for the storage of versioned medical records. For the purpose of ensuring that all file versions are the same, filesystems generate a hash known as base-configured IED descriptions. IPFS returns a hash that allows access to data from websites. However, because the Blockchain is immutable while websites change regularly, DNS must be updated after every update. IPFS resolves the problem by mapping website addresses to DNS.
Updating Medical Supply Chain Management
Blockchain is well-suited to managing and monitoring the flow of drugs due to its security, reliability and decentralized storage. This helps create a network of trusted vendors that will enhance the safety of patients. Blockchain combines all processes such as production, packaging and distribution information, transport, warehouse, and transportation into a secure, immutable, single record.
Improvements to Electronic Health Records Systems
The health data that are stored in digital form by different healthcare institutions is known as an electronic health record system. By linking electronic records, Blockchain addresses issues like interoperability and accessibility.
Improved Recruitment for Clinical Trials
Researchers created a blockchain-based on Ethereum that simulates recruitment processes. Researchers have created a blockchain system that allows them to see trial data while still protecting participants' privacy.
Blockchain Improves Electronic Medical Record Systems
The electronic health record has become a cornerstone in patient care. It provides a comprehensive, accurate and easily accessible history of individualized medical treatment. As health information systems become more complicated, it becomes harder to protect the personal data contained within EHRs. Blockchain in Healthcare is one of its most promising applications.
- EHRs are digital records of patient data that can be created by and stored in multiple healthcare facilities. Typically, the healthcare provider who created it retains access.
- The organization responsible for creating and maintaining the EHRs is often inconsistent and incomplete. The healthcare provider's view of a patient's history is fragmented.
- Interoperability and authentication (access control) are also challenges to making EHRs complete, accessible and comprehensive healthcare records.
Blockchain can address these issues by connecting EHRs, sharing ownership among stakeholders and other security features.
Read More: What Are The Upcoming Trends Of Blockchain Technology For The Future?
An EHR based on Blockchain for the Sharing of Data about Cancer Treatment
Blockchains' ability to log accurately and automatically encrypt healthcare transactions makes anonymized data from medical records widely accessible. Action-EHR is an example of a blockchain-based EHR solution. It is a system that is patient-centric and promotes patient care management about radiation treatment for cancer.
By making it simple for patients to move clinical data from one healthcare facility to another, Action-EHR is compliant with HIPAA. By being safer and storing data more efficiently, the system can overcome many limitations associated with health information exchanges. All users, including patients, doctors, researchers, and other healthcare professionals, have access to information that they require safely and efficiently.
An EHR Blockchain Solution based on a Consortium Approach
To solve the "ownership problem" with EHRs, which is a result of the original healthcare provider creating the record, it's necessary to create a platform that allows all parties involved: government, hospitals, insurers, community organizations, etc., to share ownership. A blockchain-based EHR system that has a business model set up by the stakeholders' consortium. All stakeholders can trust the validity, protection, accessibility, and completion of data. However, the Governance Model regulates the interactions of all participants with the system. As MSPs, all participants verify that the parties who access it have their identities verified.
- CAs protect all identities and ensure sensitive data anonymization.
- The MSPs give each user finely-tuned access to EHRs, and they create an audit trail of their interactions with the system.
The HealthChain prototype is secure, compliant with HIPAA, and safe. Additionally, it is open, HIPAA compliant, HIPAA compatible, scalable, quick, and efficient. If the mechanisms issuing CAs or MSPs fail, it raises the possibility of a single-point failure, and as a result, the read latency of the digital ledger grows.
Enhancing Medical Research via Blockchain
It is widely known that the COVID-19 Pandemic has had a devastating effect on the healthcare industry. However, it is less commonly understood how the disease affected medical research and clinical trials. The foundation for finding new treatments and therapies, as well as medicines to treat life-threatening illnesses, is clinical trials.
Pharmaceutical companies are pioneering blockchain-based medical research. This is mainly to enhance the efficiency of clinical trials for new drugs. Blockchain security ensures that unauthorized parties can't alter data. The public registers created by Blockchain allow authorized stakeholders to access trial results readily.
- The patient retains control of how their data will be managed, distributed, and used by healthcare providers, insurers, and others.
- Blockchain enhances drug development and discovery by facilitating collaboration between research and healthcare organizations.
- By preventing hackers from stealing participants' research, blockchain security helps protect intellectual property rights.
How Blockchain Can Help Improve Clinical Trial Recruitment
Clinical trials that lack qualified participants can have adverse effects on the outcome of the study and waste time and resources. Researchers created a blockchain-based on Ethereum to simulate the recruitment process. It is made up of two modules.
- First, a list of inclusion criteria and exclusions is used to identify potential trial subjects.
- Second, is responsible for patient recruitment, trial management and constant monitoring of future clinical trials.
All researchers can now view information about trials while still protecting participants' privacy. All transactions and data exchanges are verified, including the results of the trials. Ethereum's validating system restricted scalability. However, spacing transactions increased performance.
Smart Contracts to Manage Clinical Trials
Clinical trials generate a large amount of data, and this can overload research systems. This threatens both the integrity of trial data as well as the results. BlockTrial, a prototype for managing trial data, relies on the Blockchain and its "smart contract" technology to record transactions rather than store trial data.
The smart contracts for each type of interaction are automatically recorded in the Ethereum blockchain. This includes requests made to an external database that stores patient data. As smart contracts can't interact directly with external sources, "oracles", which are agents who monitor the Blockchain and react by invoking services or performing other actions, have been used to act as intermediaries.
- In terms of data accuracy, patient autonomy, and regulatory reporting, BlockTrial demonstrates the benefits of using Blockchain to manage clinical trial data.
- Brilliant contract records allow for statistical analysis to be conducted once research has been completed. They also confirm that research oversight organizations have followed ethical standards.
Blockchain Technology to Improve Healthcare Security
According to reports, data collection by security firms and hospitals remains the primary target of cybercriminals. The pace of cyberattacks against hospitals has increased since the COVID-19 outbreak. The security and encryption features built into the Blockchain Development will help to strengthen computer networks, information systems and healthcare providers' IT infrastructure.
- The damage caused by a data breach is reduced when the storage system is decentralized.
- By giving patients the master key to unlock their records, cryptographic keys give them greater control of their data.
- Smart contracts restrict access to data according to parameters agreed upon by all parties.
The growing adoption of blockchain technology to secure healthcare systems would necessitate compliance with HIPAA rules when employing decentralized storage. The requirement to implement encryption techniques and on-site security measures in healthcare facilities is another barrier. In compliance with HIPAA rules, blockchain technology is being used to enhance the security of healthcare data.
Read More: Why are Blockchain Apps Important for Enterprise Goals?
A File System Designed for the Decentralized Storage of Medical Records
Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP), which is at the core of the internet, has several shortcomings that make it challenging to use Blockchain as a secure platform for the distribution of health records. HTTP uses location-based addresses to distribute data. This is inefficient for data that is stored decentralized and whose locations are variable. Interplanetary File System (IPFS), a proposed alternative to HTTP, is designed explicitly for versioned data storage in decentralized environments.
- IPFS uses content addressing to separate each file when added to the Blockchain. Each chunk contains object data and hyperlinks.
- Hashing ensures all files are identical, as any changes received from IPFS are mirrored by all other versions that have the same hash.
The interplanetary nameserver (IPNS) is a crucial IPFS component. It serves as an alternative distributed domain name system to DNS, which makes it possible for websites to be found. IPFS returns a hash that allows access to data from websites. However, because blockchain files cannot be modified and websites are updated regularly, the DNS must also be updated. IPNS fixes this issue by mapping DNS addresses securely to site addresses.
Blockchain Technology to Improve Medical Supply Chain Management
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the vulnerability of healthcare providers in the face of supply chain disruptions. Blockchain can be used to manage supply chains and reduce a facility's operational healthcare costs. The integration of healthcare supply chains involves diverse functions:
- Plan your processes
- Processes intra- and inter-organizational
- Information flows
- Development of the market and its approach
Blockchains' distributed architecture, security and decentralized storage make it ideal for managing and monitoring medical and pharmaceutical supplies.
- All transactions in the ledger technology are stored on the Blockchain, which is accessible to all nodes. It is easier to identify fake drugs and medical products.
- Blockchains create a network of trusted vendors which enhances the safety of patients.
- This technology allows for better demand forecasting and fraud prevention. It does this by integrating production, packaging and distribution information, as well as transportation and storage data, into a secure and easily accessible record.
Blockchain-Based Supply Chains for Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products
Research predicts that the use of advanced therapies such as cell therapy, genetic therapy and ATMPs in Healthcare will increase by 13% annually between 2021-2028. To maintain this growth, a supply chain infrastructure must be developed that is compliant with HIPAA regulations in the U.S. Blockchain is the best technology for building ATMP supply chains since it has a distributed ledger, built-in encryption, and decentralized storage. The development of an ATMP system involves four main components.
- The analysis of stakeholders includes the following: therapy manufacturers, health care providers, insurance companies and other payers, as well as logistics providers and regulatory agencies. These analyses are used to create a user requirement specification.
- Track-and-trace software customized to your needs monitors ATMP supply movement by the applicable regulatory requirements. This software is designed to integrate with any commercial application.
- The integration and migration of software onto the Blockchain will speed up communications and maximize capacity while improving resource sharing and delivery accuracy.
- The case study evaluates the economic and feasibility impact of an ATMP supply-chain system in real-life settings. It will also determine the scalability of the model for larger systems.
Healthcare in the Blockchain Era: Rethinking
COVID-19 has caused devastation in the form of lives lost, families shattered, entire communities turned on their heads, and economies that are in decline. Some good can come out of the global catastrophe. The adoption of new technology by the healthcare sector to increase efficiency and improve patient outcomes is one such positive result.
Blockchain adoption in the healthcare sector will improve accuracy, security, accessibility, and cost savings. Blockchain will be the foundation of many innovative healthcare approaches in the post-COVID-19 era.
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Conclusion
The healthcare industry is data and people-intensive and is driven by problems. The health sector must be able to edit and access the data that comes out of its operations. When we break down the activities within the health sector into triage (health problem solving), clinical decision making, realization and assessment of Knowledge-based Care, the key to achieving desired outcomes is engaging multidisciplinary groups of healthcare personnel who apply their most relevant knowledge and skills in dealing with patients.
Blockchain technology development systems can unlock interoperability's true potential. Blockchain-based systems can eliminate or reduce the costs and friction of existing intermediaries.
