6 use cases for using Blockchain in healthcare

The healthcare sector is no longer untouched by the wide range of applications and uses cases of Blockchain. The current healthcare system is complex and includes onerous and time-consuming processes. The fintech people are buzzing about the potential of blockchain technology but its use and innovation in regards to the healthcare industry. Though it is a relatively new technology, it can revolutionize various industry verticals compared to other trending techs.

The healthcare sector has been no longer untouched by the wide range of applications and uses cases of Blockchain cases. The current healthcare system is complex and includes onerous processes.

The patients are continuously plagued by skyrocketing costs and inefficient practices. But, hopefully, blockchain can ease the pain area. Statista reports that the US alone has spent 18 percent of its GDP on healthcare in 2020.

The stats show how expensive the healthcare sector is. With the implementation of blockchain in healthcare, this rising cost can be addressed soon.

It also deflates the spending bubbles, blockchain securely encrypts, protects patients’ data, manages the outbreak of harmful disease, and promises a high probability of accurate diagnosis.

While its applications of blockchain in the healthcare domain are rising day by day, here, you will see how it is transforming the lives of caregivers and patients.

How is BlockChain reviving the healthcare industry?

While the use cases of blockchain cannot be counted on your fingertips, you will witness how it benefits the entire healthcare value chain.

1. Improved Medical Record Health Access

Blockchain has proved itself to be the most efficient technology in patient data management. A patient’s medical history plays a crucial role in diagnosing them with further aids.

MedRec, a system developed on Ethereum blockchain, gives health agencies a transparent and accessible view of their medical history.

It works on the (Proof of Authority POA) mechanism, where it becomes effortless for the doctors and patients to view the records because the information is stored in one place.

The entire process reduces the amount of time in treatment and results in no mistakes due to human error.

2. Secured Patient Data

The foremost thing in the healthcare sector is to keep important medical data safe, secure, and confidential. HIPAA Journal reports that over 176 million patients’ records have been exposed in data breaches between 2009 and 2017.

With Blockchain technology’s help, any healthcare organization can keep a decentralized, incorruptible, and transparent log of all the patient data. It locks the patients’ identity with its complex and secure codes that protect the data’s sensitivity.

Blockchain is transparent and decentralized in nature, allows the healthcare providers and patients to share the information safely and quickly. Companies like BurstIQ, Factom, Medical Chain, and Guard Time are companies applying blockchain to the healthcare industry.

3. Streamlined Medical Records 

We often see that it becomes a time-consuming process for staff management to maintain their medical records. Also, it delays patient care, but with Blockchain-based medical records, you can quickly and efficiently diagnose and personalize healthcare plans.

Blockchain’s decentralized nature builds a single ecosystem of the patient’s medical record allowing the doctors, pharmacists, and hospitals to view the information.

In this way, it results in quick and faster treatment of patients and allows them to choose personalized care plans.

4. Medical Supply Chain Management And Drug Traceability

Customers are always in a puzzle about the authenticity of the medicines they purchase. They doubt if it is being delivered from a legitimate supplier. Not only the patients but even the medical supply chain also face the same problem.

Blockchain’s decentralization feature ensures full transparency in the shipping process of pharmaceutical supply chain management. Let’s see how it works.

Blockchain creates a ledger that marks the origin where the drug is produced. After this, the ledger will record the data at every step of the delivery cycle, including the person who is handling it.

This complete process eliminates labor costs and makes the process quick and trustworthy for suppliers and customers. Chronicled, BlockPharma, Tierion are a few of the companies using blockchain to rethink the medical supply chain.

Chronicled, a custodian of MediLedger, built a blockchain-based network through which they can verify if the pharma supply chains meet the specified standard with the local regulations or not.

In brief, it traces back to the origin of supplies. , eye on ill-intent activities such as drug trafficking, maintains a forgery-proof record of transactions and authenticates raw materials to detect counterfeits.

5. Improve Patient-Doctor Interaction

Blockchain has proved itself a helping hand for physicians and healthcare providers to better coordinate healthcare and manage control over the patients’ health data. Miscommunication between the patients and caregivers accounts for 80 percent of serious medical errors.

Source

Taipei Medical University Solution introduced a blockchain-enabled solution for an ideal care coordination system that provides its patients with a complete set of medical records. It also delivers the patient with high-resolution medical images for better clarity, clinical and health exam information, and lab results.

With an ideal care coordination system, medical professionals can access a person’s medical history when conscious. Aside from this, blockchain-enabled solutions provide a healthcare ecosystem for secure communication and monitor real-time treatment through aggregated data sharing models.

6. Blockchain Solutions Stops Counterfeit Drugs

Reuters reports that tens of thousands of people die each year due to counterfeit drugs. Counterfeit drugs are illegal drugs that contain contaminated and no active ingredients.

FarmaTrust’s blockchain and AI solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector provide medicine tracking and data service. It ensures that the solution is working with the guidelines established by the particular government or not.

The second step is the track and trace feature, which uses blockchain to manage the inventory in-between. There is a Supply Chain Visibility that tracks the change or alteration in drugs, if any. There is a Customer Confidence app at the final stage that allows the buyers to view their medication’s lifecycle.

What does BIS Research say about the incorporation of blockchain in healthcare?

BIS (Bureau of India Standard) provides market intelligence on deep technologies and actionable information on different healthcare industry segments.

BIS Research reflects that the future of healthcare is indeed decentralized. It states that by 2025, the industry can save up to $100 billion per year in data-related costs, support functions, operations costs, and insurance frauds.

The report reflects how blockchain is providing a horizontal boost to the industry that it eagerly needs.

What are you up to?

While blockchain applications in healthcare will keep going in the long term, soon, we would be asking ourselves how we ever survived without it. We need to change our business process so that the blockchain process can work, connect, and pass on information more securely in the healthcare domain.

Blockchain is still new, but its slow transactional performance has compelled most industries to adopt it. It is revolutionizing the healthcare arena worldwide. By the time it is gaining popularity, organizations in the healthcare sector are looking forward to partnering with Blockchain consultants and adopting this technology in their projects.