Unlocking Blockchain Interoperability for Healthcare

Blockchain has enabled interoperability, rendering even electronic health records (EHRs) obsolete in the healthcare space. This industry has harnessed the power of blockchain in significant ways. Despite the negative impact of the COVID pandemic, healthcare has emerged as one of the most resilient sectors.

Statistics support this, with a recent survey predicting that 55% of healthcare applications will adopt blockchain for commercial deployment by 2025. Additionally, a fifth of CXOs in the US have reported that their healthcare organizations have already implemented some form of blockchain or DLT(distributed ledger technology).

Blockchain In Healthcare – An Enabler Of Interoperability

Currently, health data management cannot keep up with an era that excels at managing information at an unprecedented pace. The parallel swift to interoperability has also been experiencing exponential growth, covering everything from patient admission, diagnostic reports, prescriptions, online interaction between patients and experts, certificates, and reports, with the back-end handling even more as well. With the continued growth of data, HIEs(Health information exchange) will require an equally enhanced level of interoperability.

Devising An Effective Health Data Management Strategy

Designing a cost-effective health data management approach that remains efficient over time requires more than just deploying modern IT infrastructure. The approach must also involve gradual upgrades to prevent it from becoming a legacy system based on performance. To benefit from blockchain applications, a well-planned and step-by-step approach is essential. Just like any other business strategy, successful interoperability in healthcare projects must be aligned with their goals and objectives. Let's examine the critical steps necessary to achieve this.

• Stage 1: Analyse Your Current IT Approach

The first stage in achieving interoperability is to analyze your current IT approach. The efficiency of your existing IT infrastructure is a primary concern. IT infrastructures have grown haphazardly over the last decade, making it crucial to design an efficient hyper-converged infrastructure with connected servers that can be easily managed and adapted to change.

• Stage 2: Predicting the Future

The second stage involves predicting and preparing for the future. During the initial deployment phase, it is essential to consider not only the current operational needs but also how the system will perform in the next decade. As you prepare to adopt interoperability, it is essential to ask questions such as:

• What does the future of this sector look like?

• Stage3: Set your target

The third stage involves exploring the potential of blockchain and setting your goals. After assessing your current IT approach and predicting the future, it's time to examine the possibilities of what blockchain can offer. During this planning stage, it's crucial to invest time in understanding the landscape, identifying its problems, and exploring potential solutions with the aid of blockchain technologies.

• Stage4: Create an Efficient Interoperability In Healthcare

The fourth stage is to create efficient interoperability in healthcare. It's advisable to start by leveraging the expertise of your organization and collaborating with your best partners, suppliers, and customers. Although the public healthcare sector may appear challenging to approach, it's possible to create governance policies that address ongoing challenges and redesign how you implement efficient blockchain interoperability in healthcare.

The potential of Blockchain in Healthcare

Below are some of the factors in how blockchain is unlocking interoperability for healthcare.

1. Aggregated Personal Health Information

Interoperability in the sharing of medical information is a classic problem that existed before EHRs. Despite being digital, medical records are still stored in siloed, centralized IT systems, making sharing difficult. Requesting, sending, receiving, and compiling patient data takes a lot of time and resources.

In the future, blockchain technology may be able to break down traditional silos of medical records storage and make the process of sharing EHRs much easier. Blocks of data, or transactions, are encrypted and linked chronologically in a blockchain, which is an immutable ledger of transactions.

2. Big Data Management

The existing, outdated health IT infrastructure could potentially provide health authorities with unprecedented benefits in identifying and notifying at-risk populations susceptible to the pandemic.

Combined with advanced technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence, a blockchain network reduces risks in caring for large patient populations.

3. Patient-Centered Control of Data Access and Use

The abundant data available in today's technology-driven society has sparked concerns about consumer data rights. The commercial collection and utilization of consumer data, in numerous cases, is presently unregulated. However, the recently enacted GDPR by the European Union sets an example of pioneering legislation that safeguards consumers' rights to control the use of their data.

Healthcare has traditionally focused on the patient as its main priority, and our health data management systems must reflect this. Blockchain technology has the potential to democratize data access, giving consumers greater control and eliminating the need for a costly intermediary in transactions, such as a centralized and isolated database. With this technology, individuals can manage access to their medical information and even sell it directly to data brokers, without the need for intermediaries.

Final Remarks

The unique attributes of blockchain, such as its distributed, decentralized, and immutable nature, can provide distinct solutions for reducing complexity and enabling trustless collaboration. As a result, many rapidly developing areas, including health data management, are considering integrating blockchain into their ecosystems.?

The healthcare cloud computing market is expected to grow at an impressive CAGR of 18%, reaching 65 billion USD by 2025, and this growth can be attributed to several key factors that have increased awareness and adoption of blockchain-based healthcare information technology solutions, ultimately leading to improved interoperability in the healthcare industry.

For more details regarding blockchain in healthcare, visit Gyan Consulting.