Blockchain for Healthcare

Blockchain is a potent technology that makes it possible for several people to view and share data securely. This is a significant challenge in the field of digital health, where patient privacy and security are crucial, but improving the quality of care requires greater coordination in the management of patient data throughout the healthcare system and the capacity to apply analytics to medical data at the population level. In summary, blockchain can improve digital health by facilitating safe data sharing across highly dispersed healthcare systems with patient consent.

Blockchain is utilized in healthcare for a variety of purposes, including pharmaceutical supply chain management and patient data security.

Distributed ledger technology based on blockchain makes it easier to transfer patient medical records securely, fortifies healthcare data security, controls the medication supply chain, and aids in medical researchers' deciphering of genetic codes.

Blockchain technology may lessen the suffering in the healthcare industry by protecting patient data, deflating the present expenditure bubble, and enhancing the patient experience overall. Already, technology is being utilized for anything from controlling the spread of dangerous diseases to safely encrypting patient data.

How Blockchain Can Protect Health Information?

It should come as no surprise that the most widely used blockchain healthcare use at present is safeguarding medical data. One of the biggest concerns in the healthcare sector is security. Between July 2021 and June 2022, 692 significant breaches involving healthcare data were documented. The thieves took records of health and genetic testing, credit card and bank information.

Blockchain technology is perfect for security applications because it maintains an incorruptible, decentralized, and transparent log of all patient data. Furthermore, blockchain conceals the identity of everyone with intricate and secure protocols that can safeguard the confidentiality of medical data, making it both transparent and private. Furthermore, facilitating speedy and secure information sharing between patients, physicians, and healthcare professionals is the decentralized structure of the technology.

Companies apply blockchain to healthcare security:

1. Novo Nordisk:

With a century of expertise, the multinational pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk conducts extensive research and testing before releasing its medications for use by patients worldwide.

Novo Nordisk wants to improve patient data collecting convenience and security by integrating the Electronic Patient Interactive Device, or ePID, into clinical studies. To protect the integrity of the clinical trial process, the company's software developers have integrated blockchain technology into ePID's data collection capabilities. This ensures that medical information is never compromised or altered.

2. Akiri:

Akiri runs a network-as-a-service tailored especially for the medical field, assisting in the secure transfer of patient health data. The Akiri system does not store data. It functions as both a network and a protocol to define regulations, configure data layers, and verify the sources and destinations of data in real time.

Akiri makes sure that medical records are safe and accessible to only those who are permitted to see them when they need to.

3. BurstIQ:

The platform from BurstIQ aids in the safe and secure management of enormous amounts of patient data by healthcare organizations. Its blockchain technology makes it possible to store, sell, share, or license data while strictly adhering to HIPAA regulations. BurstIQ's platform may be able to assist in identifying prescription drug abuse of opioids and other medications since it contains comprehensive and current data about patients' health and medical activities.

Use cases Blockchain healthcare:

1. Transparency in the supply chain:

As in many other industries, establishing the origins of medical goods to verify their validity is a significant difficulty for the healthcare business. Customers can have complete visibility and transparency of the things they are purchasing by using a blockchain-based system to trace items from the manufacturing point and at every stage through the supply chain.

This is a major concern for the industry, particularly in developing nations where tens of thousands of fatalities are brought on by fake prescription drugs every year. It is also becoming more and more crucial for medical gadgets, which are multiplying rapidly as more remote health monitoring is used and, consequently, drawing the attention of unscrupulous individuals.

2. Patient-centric electronic health records:

Every nation and area's healthcare systems are beset by the issue of data silos, which leaves patients and their healthcare providers' views of each other's medical histories incomplete. According to a study released in 2016 by Johns Hopkins University, medical errors resulting from poorly coordinated care—such as planned actions not executed as intended or omissions in patient records—are the third largest cause of death in the United States.

Developing a blockchain-based medical record system that can be integrated with current EMR software and serve as a comprehensive, unified view of a patient's record is one possible way to address this issue. It is imperative to stress that no real patient data is stored on the blockchain; instead, every new record that is added to the system—be it a prescription, a test result, or a doctor's note—is converted into a distinct hash function, which is just a short string of characters. Each hash function is distinct and can only be deciphered with permission from the data owner, in this case, the patient.

3. Smart contracts for insurance and supply chain settlements:

Blockchain-based systems are offered by companies like Chronicled and Curisium, which enable different stakeholders in the healthcare industry, including pharmaceutical companies, medical device OEMs, wholesalers, insurers, and healthcare providers, to authenticate their identities as organizations, log contract details, and track the exchange of goods and services as well as payment settlement details. Beyond supply chain management, this kind of environment allows insurance companies and trading partners in the healthcare industry to function using entirely digital and often automated contract terms.

4. Verification of medical staff credentials:

Blockchain technology can be used to track the experience of medical professionals, similar to tracking the provenance of medical goods. Reputable medical institutions and healthcare organizations can log the credentials of their staff members, which helps to expedite the hiring process for these organizations. Using the R3 Corda blockchain protocol, US-based ProCredEx has created such a medical credential verification system.