Blockchain in Healthcare
A sudden occurrence of Coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created a worldwide health crisis that has
a deep impact on the way we perceive our
world and our everyday lives.
A Blockchain-driven
health information exchange can unlock the true value of the difference.
Blockchain-based framework can possibly
decrease or eliminate friction and cost of current intermediaries and can
handle the frustration highlighted by Coronavirus (COVID-19).
The guarantee of Blockchain has broad implications for
stakeholders in the healthcare and biological ecosystem. Underwriting this
innovation can possibly produce experiences and better evaluate the estimation
of care for associating divided frameworks. Hence, for long term goal across the country, Blockchain
Technology can be organized for electronic clinical records to improve limit and
support better wellbeing results for patients.
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Current Healthcare System
Most
healthcare facilities still rely on outdated systems to maintain patient
records. Such programs have the advantage of maintaining patient data in local
records. This can complicate diagnosis for a doctor which is time consuming for
the doctor and also boring for patients.
Problems
in the healthcare are not limited. They keep on developing with time, and higher
power. The need for technologically advanced equipment cannot be ruled out.
Healthcare data information exchange is another time-consuming and tedious
process that results in higher costs to the healthcare industry. Since patients
have no influence over their records, there are dangers of character hack,
spamming, and money related information violations consistently.
Blockchain Solution
Blockchain Technology is one of the most disruptive
technologies these days that has overwhelmed the world by storm. A Blockchain is nothing more than
a distributed ledger that monitors transactions and events that occur throughout
the network. The data records stored on a Blockchain is completely secure. If
anyone wishes to make some changes in one of the block, it is then mandatory to
make changes to all the blocks present in the system with governance of
different Consensus Algorithms.
Implementation of Blockchain Technology in Healthcare
Regulatory requirements, issues relying on authenticity and
security concerns are some of the major barriers to information sharing. A
better collaboration can help with accurate diagnosis and effective treatments
to deliver cost-effective care. Blockchain can overcome ambiguous data
ownership problems that will improve data integrity and peer-to-peer
accountability. The patient's consent can be accurately captured using
conforming consent provisions. Since they are lodged in an irreversible
fashion, health care professionals can rely on it.
Without violating the basic requirements of healthcare
sector, it will be possible to collect, store, protect and share health data
and enable its real-time use. As floated in the recent reports, The Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) has limited the use of
health care data records and delayed its
real-time use for different instances.
Medical Healthcare experts will access more data and information
generated from the patient's health record, which can result in faster growth
of samples. It will empower hospitals, patients and other parties to provide
access to their networks without affecting data security and integrity in the
healthcare security value-chain.
Blockchain may also open a new opportunity for pseudonym
health recommendations in this Coronavirus(COVID-19)
crisis. Personal identification will remain secure while health data will be
added to the Blockchain. Therefore , patient recommendations can be easily made
based on this real-time data records.
Blockchain provides a secure and easily authenticated
platform for the integration of data from fitness trackers and devices such as wearable’s
that use mobile applications. A single patient can generate certified and
secure health data from multiple devices. Based on monitoring and access to
their daily health data, continuous health and exercise plans can be made for
patients, adjusted as a consistent outcome.
Blockchain technology can truly revolutionize the
pharmaceutical sector, as well as the drug discovery, development and delivery
process. Previously we estimated that 9 out of 10 new drugs fail this clinical
trial, and do not reach the very high FDA-approval stage. A major problem for
pharma companies is to obtain important patient data in an era when they are
not really trusted by people.
In today's Technological Era, mobile applications and remote
monitoring machines are essential for patient care. Blockchain can be applied
to these technologies and can improve the safety and quality of machinery.
According to Healthcare reports, 40-50% of healthcare executives see Blockchain Technology
as one of the top 5 priorities in the industry that can manage the extra burden
on the Economic Development of the Country.
As, the adoption of Blockchain Technology in health care
costs the health industry can get large sum of money through data breach-related costs, IT costs,
operating costs, support function costs and personnel costs, and fraud
reduction etc.It will cut all the intermediated amount that get float through
the network to reach the destination.
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What Blockchain can provide in
Healthcare for fight against this pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19):
1. Decentralized System
As we know, the Blockchain
Technology has a decentralized system interconnected with one another which makes it hackproof and prevents every single
copy of data from being compromised or manipulated.
All commodity hardware
in the hospital can be built to run on these decentralized systems. It will
eliminate all man-made and even natural disasters in which foolproof protection
will be provided.
However, the power saved
by these systems can be utilized by scientists to make firm calculations to
find cures, medications, and treatments for various diseases and disorders.
2. Single Data Source
We previously studied
that all transactions are stored in the Blockchain and only added to the chain
after being confirmed by most participants.
Furthermore, the recorded
data cannot be changed which proves to be 100% of authenticity and security.
Researchers can use
this property to study the undisclosed information of a specific group of
people.
This supports
longitudinal studies used for the development of precision therapy for
effective treatment.
3. 24 * 7 data monitoring and access (Prime requirement during Coronavirus)
Blockchain Technology can
be used to store and update useful patient data records such as blood pressure
and sugar levels with the help of IOT, wearable’s and other modern devices.
It assures doctors to
monitor 24 * 7 patients who are at high risk and inform and alert their
caregivers and relatives in an emergency.
4. Cost Effectiveness
Blockchain technology
completely takes out of the equation all third party and intermediary systems
that are usually involved in fetching and transferring data.
5. Constant rules through Smart Contracts
A smart contract is
nothing but a computer protocol that digitally verifies, facilitates and
implements negotiation.
In healthcare it helps
in developing a coherent rule based process for accessing patient data by
various organizations.
6.
Integrity of Medical Records
Blockchain can be used
to ensure the integrity of all medical records. Because whenever a medical
record is created, it can be stored in the Blockchain, which will provide
complete proof of it because the records in the Blockchain cannot be changed.
This would be a very
big plus point because the integrity of the medical record is important for
both medical as well as legal approaches.
7.
Single Patient Identification
Mismatch and
duplication of patient records in healthcare is not as rare. In addition,
different schemas of different EHRs make the task difficult as it brings new
ways of manipulating data in the simplest way.
However, complete data
with Blockchain is hashed for a book. When you are looking for addresses, you
will be confronted with many addresses and keys; However, all these will reveal
the identity of the same patient.
8.
Settlement of Claims
The consumption of time
for claim settlements is a pain in the healthcare industry. The smart contract
in the Blockchain defines the terms and conditions of the contract between
payer and provider.
This claim applies when
presented. This is processed in real time after the claim is processed and
remitted to the final payment provider.
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