Blockchain and Healthcare System

First world countries spend a significant amount of their GDP on healthcare subsidies. Yet, healthcare charges keep increasing and due to inefficient practices, we are seeing data security being compromised.?

So why don't we turn towards an emerging technology? The scope of blockchain in the healthcare industry expands from data encryption of patients’ information to handling pandemics. Estonia is the first-mover in this field and they equipped the blockchain back in 2012 for their healthcare industry.??

Estonia’s entire health care billing, 99% of prescription information and around 95% of health data is being digitally maintained on blockchain. In this article, we will discuss major pros and cons of blockchain integration in the healthcare industry. Let's start.?

Key points in integration of blockchain in healthcare are:

• Identity verification of all patients
• Security of Infrastructure of network
• Consistency in patterns of authorization to get access to electronic health data.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) can be applied to many healthcare sectors. The problem is that all of the activities within healthcare are not linked with transactions. Another important point is that the public blockchains cannot be used to store this private data since the data in private blockchains is widely accessible.?

Also, even though blockchain technology offers inbuilt protection, it is vulnerable to some forms of attacks. For example, the blockchain code is open to Zero Day Attacks & bugs along with social engineering. This information requires paramount care and importance, at least in the security sector.?

Blockchain technology should not be used immutably in this sector as data contained within is immutable. Bigger files of those that need to change often are to be kept out of the blockchain. Also, all the identifying data should not be a part of the data stored in the blockchain.?

The benefits of using blockchain technology in healthcare management systems are numerous. The list includes

• Decentralized management
• Unchangeable database
• Traceable data
• Robust data
• Availability of data to any authorized user that has the key to it

Blockchain in healthcare can be categorized into five primary areas:

• Protection of data
• Record management
• Point-of-care genomics management
• Managing EMR and EHR data

Some of the applications are discussed below:

Currently, electronic health records allow auto updating & sharing of patients information within a network or organization only. This can be expanded if the information is organized as such that a set of information on the topmost layer of the blockchain was only that was not personally identifiable information (PII). This will allow researchers to access this huge pile of data, containing information on hundreds and thousands of patients. This will contribute in promoting clinical research, safety event & adverse event reporting along with identification and public health reporting.

The same information on the blockchain will allow the individual patients to easily unlock and share their health data with other providers of the organizations, through a distributable private key. This can help make health information technology (HIT) interoperable and collaborative.

Blockchain provides a single system to store, share and update health records. Moreover, it is secure and is faster for authorized users to retrieve data present on blockchain. This will also avoid miscommunication between several healthcare professionals involved in caring for the same patient. It helps avoid innumerable mistakes and can help achieve faster diagnosis and the system can be personalized for each patient since the data is stored in blocks.?

Through blockchain, a single transaction layer can be provided and through a secure system and standardization, organizations can store and share data. The use of smart contracts and uniform authorization protocols can significantly support seamless connectivity.

Final Thoughts:

Due to encryption and decentralization, we are seeing innovative blockchain applications in healthcare come to light. We can see that this technology will notably enhance and may revolutionize how patients and doctors use clinical records and improve health care services.??