Blockchain in healthcare applications will come equipped with the latest technology to solve the healthcare industry’s challenges. However, the attention should remain on improving health care quality and ensuring that a patient-centered approach is taken rather than profit maximization. Therefore, it cannot be denied that the impact of Blockchain on healthcare will be substantial in the future. Here, we are trying to study blockchain healthcare use cases by sharing examples and applications.
Table of Contents
What is Blockchain?
The Blockchain, known in Spanish as a chain of blocks, is a data structure distribute in nodes that allows its transfer in an immutable and secure way.
It was born together with bitcoins to encode the information of the virtual currency. Still, its real potential has caused it to be implement in sectors that go far beyond financial transactions.
Advantages and Applications of Blockchain in the Health Sector
The incorporation of Blockchain in the health sector will allow:
- A centralized medical record. Today, each patient’s information is split across multiple clinical centers. If this information were share, the entire prevention, diagnosis, and treatment process would be much more agile, avoiding negligence or duplicate tests.
- Transfer of information maintaining confidentiality. The Blockchain allows the patients themselves to be the ones who manage the access and use that is given to their clinical history.
- Automation of medication supply. As prescribed in medical centers, the consumption of drugs can be manage and control more efficiently.
Example of the Application of Blockchain in the Dental Sector
To understand how Blockchain can benefit the dental sector, we will give you an example.
Imagine that the patient is the owner of their data. Dentists can access their entire history with their authorization and consult the professionals who have treated them, pathologies, patient medication, and reports. Etc. Even from any country in the world.
If someone travels 6,000 km away and has an urgent problem with their mouth, they will need to go to the dentist. The dentist could access all this information with a simple reading of the fingerprint.
Thanks to the Blockchain, it will be possible to avoid duplicate tests, which leads to a reduction in time and costs, updated information and control over the history of each patient against potential cases of negligence, knowledge about who accesses the past, and the author of each record.
How Dental Appliances Adapt to the Blockchain?
Autoclaves such as the new Mocom Futura range, Cattani suction systems, and Morita radiology devices already have a wi-fi internet connection and the possibility of controlling the device remotely.
If the devices are connect to the network, we will obtain more complete and reliable information. For example, we could know with which device the patient took an X-ray if it was in optimal conditions of calibration or maintenance, and which technicians have manipulated the machine.
What years ago would have seemed nonsense (that dental devices have wi-fi), today it is a reality and almost a necessity. The same thing remains expected to happen with Blockchain technology in a short time, so we will have to be prepared.
Current Health System
The current health system is old. It relies heavily on patient-doctor interaction and works with limited data. The minor aspect of health care results in a lackluster healthcare system that fails to harness data. Also, the current process of obtaining medical care is long and tedious at its best. All this results in ineffective management of the patient.
Drug Supply Chain and Counterfeiting
The supply chain in the health system also suffers from the adverse effects of supply chains. This dependence leads to manipulated prices, the late supply of medicines, and much more.
Drug counterfeiting is another big problem as it leads to massive losses for the entire healthcare industry. Current source chain systems are not capable of keeping counterfeit medicines at bay. It leads to a massive $200 million loss for the healthcare industry.
Data Segmentation and Inadequate Management
The maintenance of health data is another aspect that fails the current health system. Critical information and patient data are scattere across systems and departments, with no way to get the correct information at the right time. It leads to problems and delays when a doctor tries to learn about the patient. Even patients are not in complete control as they have too many reports from different doctors that are difficult to manage in one place. Due to the unavailability of critical data, many healthcare systems fail to provide necessary treatment to patients. The management system is also affect as many are disorganised and not equipped with the proper tools for a smooth process.
Security and Storage of Health Data
Another problem that the health system has to deal with is the misuse of health data. The data can mainly be sold to third-party companies. However, there is more to the data misuse problem, which can be understood by reviewing the statistics.
- Not all medical reports are report in the US, which means data loss.
- Health care reports are full of misleading info and errors.
- Healthcare administrations in data breaches have lost $380 per record.
Poor data management uses outdated systems, such as data silos, that are not connect to most health systems and applications. On top of that, some healthcare boards like to have everything local, making it even more challenging to find relevant information, resulting in a time-consuming affair for doctors. Cost is also affect, making it difficult for patients. Today’s healthcare positions us for blockchain healthcare use cases that we will discuss after learning how Blockchain can solve today’s healthcare system.
How Blockchain Will Solve Problems in Health Care?
Blockchain can completely change the health system. You can help the healthcare industry overcome the challenges it is going through. For example, it can help progress universal access, integrity, security, traceability, and interoperability. Blockchain healthcare applications are the key to improving the current state of healthcare.
With Blockchain, multiple healthcare systems can come together and exchange data with each other, thanks to the distributed framework it has to offer. So what challenges can Blockchain solve? We will list them below.
Interoperability
One of the significant benefits of using Blockchain is its interoperability. For example, today’s hospital information systems use different types of protocols and standards to ensure that all hospitals can access data.
Most make use of CDA, FHI, HL7 2.X for data exchange and storage. However, this can lead to difficulty when it comes to integrating new systems or platforms. The solution is Blockchain. Blockchain can solve all interoperability issues as it acts as a decentralized database. Data can be access through APIs with a focus on standard data format. Blockchain can also work seamlessly with today’s platforms and protocols used to access and store data.
Integrity
The integrity of Blockchain also solves many problems that the healthcare industry is going through today. Today, Blockchain in healthcare primarily realizes how data is transmit between systems. Unfortunately, this leads to errors that nullify the importance of the stored data.
Conclusion
The Blockchain allows the patients themselves to be the ones who manage the access and use that is given to their clinical history automation of medication supply. As prescribed in medical centers, the consumption of drugs can be manage and controlled more efficiently.