Blockchain is a chain of blocks connected using a hashing strategy. Every block features timestamped information records including healthcare, financial, confidential data, and more. Blockchains are managed by a group of users on a decentralized network.
Interestingly, blockchain is the most hyped technology of Internet 4.0 as it has boosted security over the Internet rapidly. Using blockchain on healthcare applications and services, security breaches could be reduced by up to 99%.
The world of computers works on binary digits and this can be compromised after some decoding, but blockchain encodes this data in a manner that cannot be easily decoded.
Why Is Blockchain Implemented In The Healthcare Sector?
Blockchain, being a distributed ledger system, records transactions in a database that consists of blocks where the blocks are chained together with the hash value to form a chain-like ecosystem. Notably, blockchain has multiple features that make them a good choice for healthcare networks:
- Secure – Once a block is added to the blockchain, it will need the consensus of most of the other nodes in the network to change the data embedded in the block.
- Decentralized – blockchain is a fully decentralized network of nodes where nobody needs to trust or know anyone else. Every member in the network has the same copy of data as other nodes within the network. If a member’s ledger is changed, it will get rejected by most of the member nodes within the network.
- Self-correcting – when the data in one of the blocks within the network is altered then other nodes in the network check their blocks, and cross-reference one another to eliminate the error.
- Distributed – Blockchain is a distributed ledger where separate and independent computers record, share, and synchronize the transactions in their respective electronic ledgers.
Advantages Of Blockchain In The Healthcare Industry
Blockchain offers many benefits to the healthcare sector. Some of the top advantages the technology brings include:
Securing Patient Data
In the healthcare industry, securing patient data is the most important part. Tampering the patient records could result in issues and challenges in identifying the disease or problem in the patient by the hospitals and doctors. Between 2009 and 2017, over 176 million patient records were breached.
The hackers stole the credit card and bank information and used them in various unethical ways. Blockchain is tamper-proof, distributed, and incorruptible ensuring that patient data is accessed more easily and securely.
Medical Drugs Supply Chain Management
Medicines and drugs are not manufactured in hospitals. They are made by pharmaceutical companies and then supplied across different countries according to their needs. What happens if somebody tampers with the drugs while moving them from one place to the other?
The medical supply chain has to be tamper-proof and transparent for the exporters and importers. Blockchain mitigates this issue since it is transparent, decentralized, and tamper-proof. After the distributed ledger is created for a drug, every transporting point will get added to the blockchain from the point of origin to the destination making it transparent across the whole transportation process.
Single Longitudinal Patient Records
Since blockchain features a chain of blocks, all types of patient records will get entered into the blockchain ledger. Records like disease history, treatment fees, lab test results, and many others can help to project the disease according to the patient’s next visit using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Using all these precompiled records enables hospitals to offer discounts to their clients by analyzing them. Furthermore, it helps in mastering patient indices making all records to streamline carefully, and preventing severe mistakes.
Supply Chain Optimization
The main challenge within the healthcare industry is to guarantee the authenticity of the origin of medical goods to ensure that all supplied medicines are authentic. With the assistance of blockchain technology, foods can be tracked from manufacturing to every stage of the supply chain. This guarantees complete transparency and visibility of the goods to buy.
This can enable firms to use artificial intelligence and predict demand better and optimize the supply chain accordingly and simultaneously, it can boost the customers’ confidence.
Drug Traceability
Blockchain is a highly reliable, dependable, and secure solution to track all drugs to their roots. Each block of data with drug information will have a hash value connected to another data block. This hash value guarantees that the data has not been tampered with. These transactions in the blockchain are visible to all illegal and unauthorized parties.
Medicine buyers can guarantee the authenticity of the acquired products by scanning the QR code and checking all the essential information, including the manufacturer’s details.
Improved Electronic Health Record Networks
Electronic health record systems are health data in digital form that is created and stored by several healthcare facilities. Blockchain resolves various shortcomings like interoperability, accessibility, and authentication by linking electronic health records and sharing ownership of these records among all the stakeholders
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