How Blockchain Powers Equitable Healthcare in Low-Income Countries?

We live in a world full of different levels, the poor and the rich, the educated and the illiterate, the castle-owners and the homeless. And as much as we hope to deny that our globe revolves around one crucial aspect, money, it remains a fact that it does simplify lives and can grant us fundamental tools to live in dignity. If you are financially stable, you can eat and drink, live under a roof, continue your studies, or run a business. And on top of all that, you can have a fair medical service and reach life-saving health resources.

But since when is healthcare exclusive to the rich? Where do we stand on offering health services to all people equally? Are our global health systems fair enough to everyone?

Our health systems are not well-balanced to include every human on the world map. What if I told you there might be a solution?

It is a reality that has already changed the world of finance, and we hope it can revolutionize healthcare. And you’ve known by now the secret ingredient; blockchain.

Blockchain is a trend meant to stay.

We might encounter the booming of many hypes, buzzwords, or trends to see them later scattered and soon forgotten. But some innovations are meant to stay and change our lives. Take the mobile as an example; someone invented a box-sized cellular, then updates started adding up, and technologies became integrated to bring us the smartphones we know. From enabling wireless calls to connecting us to the world, our mobiles now integrate multiple devices and tasks, like the camera, calendar, weather forecasts, alarm, chatting, and more, into one pocket-sized mobile! When no one imagined this tiny device could do such tasks, it exceeded expectations.

And blockchain can be the next trend meant to stay, upgrade itself, integrate with other technologies, and change our world, hopefully bringing us a fair, equitable global community.

The power of blockchain in health

You most probably have heard of blockchain by now. Even if you didn’t dive deep into the technical details, you would know that it’s a new concept of saving data records, applying transactions, and tracking data securely and transparently. The technical term of a blockchain would be “a shared public ledger,” but in simple terms, it’s a chain of blocks linked and secured by encryptions and found on every participant’s device where they agree on every record or transaction.

Blockchain is famous for its financial use case, cryptocurrencies, but granting us equitable healthcare might be its most noble use.

The homeless are often nameless.

The top challenge for homeless or poor individuals is proof of identity. Due to the interoperability between health services and fragmented, siloed data centers, a common issue among these individuals is lacking a primary identity document when entering a health institute. The National Law Center surveyed people experiencing homelessness and poverty to reveal that the lack of a photo ID prevented them from receiving food stamps, Medicaid, social security income (SSI) benefits, housing, shelter, or medical services.

So a majority sharing with us the same planet can’t reach their fundamental rights of having proper healthcare, not only because of the lack of money but because they can’t even prove who they are. They are nameless faces needing these essential services but can’t get them.

And although blockchain isn’t magic, it is a golden invention we should adopt. It can offer individuals digital identities, simplify payment methods, help track the supply chain of medicine and drugs, and make healthcare accessible to everyone.

Digital identity

You will have a digital wallet on a blockchain, and its address can be your identity. So on a health-dedicated blockchain, every stakeholder, whether patients, health providers, pharmaceutical and insurance companies, research agencies, or health institutes, will establish their own digital identity. And having a decentralized identity will help health providers or companies solve the interoperability and silos of data. Each patient will merge many identities through the wallet into one central digital identity. And the homeless, the poor, and those distinctly living in rural areas can all equally own identities on the public blockchain, control their health data, consent to sharing it, and earn crypto by doing so!

The beauty of this system is that the people are at its center. It will change the equation to balance the power in the healthcare sector; health professionals can provide us with care, insights, and medicine, and we (people/patients) can offer them data!

Quick and easy payments

As blockchain eliminates intermediaries, healthcare can become less costly. Crypto payments are quick and easy, specifically across borders. With telehealth, many can access health services from rural areas or across borders, and crypto will be the fastest option. Smart contracts simplify invoicing and the payment process.

Supply chain tracking

Like other sectors, healthcare faces the challenge of ensuring a transparent supply chain to know the origin of medical goods, trace them, and prove their authenticity. A weak supply chain with drug theft or expired, counterfeit drugs results in high costs for global health systems and inferior medical services to low-income countries.

With blockchain, Pharma companies and patients consuming a medicine can trace its entire trip from the manufacturer to reaching their hands. And this ensures patient safety regardless of their residence or economic levels and guarantees that a drug is original and safe to consume.

Accessible healthcare

As you have an identity on a blockchain and are the owner of your data, you can consent to share this data with a health provider and receive adequate medical care. Rural residents might not have easy access to health services, but connecting thier health data, existing on the blockchain, or part of it with a health provider can solve the problem, especially with the current remote consultations and telehealth. Blockchain can also mitigate healthcare disparities and facilitate data sharing between parties resulting in a better health outcome, personally for the patient and globally for the whole public health.

Blockchain can make health accessible to everyone.

Towards an equitable, accessible healthcare

We are all humans and have equal rights to live and receive adequate care. Regardless of our race, residence, social level, literacy, and financial state, we should have proper medication and a fair, accessible health system. We might take time to learn new technologies and adopt them, but we should accept and overcome the challenges. A struggle to inhabit a technology, like a blockchain, is better than the struggle to live and receive cures, so why not start now? Why are health institutes and governments still waiting?

Profits eventually fade, but humans won’t! Our health should always be the priority, and caring for it should be equitable, accessible, affordable, and straightforward.

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dHealth?is a layer-1 protocol built for the healthcare industry. We’re tokenising the access and exchange of valuable health data by bridging the gap between corporations in the Web 2 world with a decentralised Medverse in the Web 3 world.

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