As time and technology progress, businesses demand revolutionary changes in all its aspects to ensure growth. Compared to many other fields, the urgency for growth is much higher in the field of blockchain in healthcare. The need of the hour is quality healthcare services supported by the latest technology. At present, the healthcare system landscape is looking to embrace a more patient-centric approach focused on apt healthcare facilities and affordable treatment.
Current Healthcare System:
Delivery of quality health care services is more about ensuring superior patient health management at all times. However, owing to federal rules and regulations, most of the healthcare processes at present are tedious and lengthy. As a result, in many cases, it is not possible to provide effective patient care while maintaining all the processes. The gap between providers and payers is one of the major issues in providing quality healthcare services.
Healthcare is a sector where critical patient data and information is found to be scattered around different systems and departments. Multiple players in the existing system are not equipped with a system for smooth process management. Moreover, outdated systems are still used by many healthcare facilities for keeping patient records. In short, there are issues galore in the current healthcare sector and the requirement for a technically sound system cannot be denied.
Blockchain Solution:
A noted online store for health supplements, blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt the healthcare sector. We all know how this disruptive technology has taken the world by storm these days. Technically speaking, this is a distributed ledger capable of maintaining track of all transactions and activities taking place over the network. The most unique attribute of the technology is that no one can alter a piece of information once it is added to the distributed ledger. Therefore, there is absolute security for all information stored on a blockchain.
Blockchain as a Solution to Healthcare Problems:
There is no doubt that blockchain technology can revolutionize the healthcare ecosystem by bringing about specific changes that are extremely important. First and foremost, this technology will bring the power back to people’s hands, providing them complete control of their own data. The implementation of blockchain technology will ensure that all critical information is easily accessible round the clock by patients, doctors, and pharmacists. With blockchain, it is possible to create and share a single common database containing critical health information. Regardless of the electronic medical system used, all entities involved in the process will have undisturbed access to the system. Therefore, doctors will have more time for patient care and treatment. Smooth sharing of data between healthcare providers will also make treatments more effective, increase the accuracy of diagnosis and help build a cost-effective ecosystem.
Blockchain Applications in Healthcare:
Mentioned below are some use cases of blockchain technology that can make the healthcare industry more reliable, secure, and accessible.
- Data security, interoperability, and shareability are the largest challenges faced by population health management. When applied correctly, blockchain can be a reliable solution to this challenge.
- At present, the operation of the healthcare system and organizations take place through one single central database. In this approach, there is just one single point of failure. The decentralized infrastructure of blockchain can prevent the internal infrastructure of organizations from external threats and attacks.
- Another attractive benefit of blockchain is the use of cryptocurrencies for payment instead of cash or fiat money. This will not only eliminate fraud but also decrease the overall administrative costs by removing the third parties from the chain.
- Counterfeiting of drugs results in the loss of billions of dollars per year. The security feature of blockchain can be utilized for superior drug traceability.
- Researchers can make utilize of blockchain technology for making their clinical trials more transparent and fair. It can also add credibility to clinical trials by storing documents as smart contracts on the blockchain.
- Finally, blockchain will make patient data management easier, faster, and more effective.
