Blockchain technology has so many different applications that it can be hard to know where to start. The first exposure most people have when it comes to this technology is through cryptocurrencies, most likely through Bitcoin. However, it is a flexible technology that can be applied in many different ways.
One of these areas is the healthcare system. There are many inefficiencies in the healthcare systems of major countries in the world. It can be very expensive, slow and inefficient. Blockchain technology can help to change this perception.
This article looks at different ways in which blockchain technology can be applied to the healthcare sector.
Everything would be so much easier for patients and medical professionals alike if there was a singular database containing all of the medical records for a given patient. Patients would no longer have to get to the appointment early and to fill out the same paperwork each time.
While this idea has been around since the internet and paperless record first came to prominence, there have been privacy concerns.
These concerns were proven to be legitimate when the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom was struck by an attack on their computer systems in 2017. This was dubbed the WannaCry hack and it cost the NHS £92 million.
People are more concerned about the privacy of their data now more than ever. If nefarious parties had access to people’s medical records, all sorts of harm could be administered. Therefore, there can only be electronic medical records that are shareable if the system is flawlessly secure.
The blockchain comes close to achieving this. This level of interoperability could dramatically increase the efficiency of medical visits.
A major cause of ill health across the world is when people consume counterfeit drugs. While the person may think they are treating a given illness they may have through the use of medication, the counterfeit drugs can often do more harm than good.
According to the World Health Organization, about 10% of the pharmaceuticals in the world are counterfeit. This fuels these criminal organizations and also contributes to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people each year.
In its current form, it is very hard to police counterfeit drugs. However, blockchain technology can be used to track these drugs from the start of the process when they are created, all of the way through the supply chain until they end up in the hands of the end consumer. Therefore, the companies providing these drugs will be held accountable and counterfeit drugs can be much more easily identified.
Clinical trials are vital in discovering new treatments for illnesses and diseases. Naturally, there is a large focus on the verification of data as lives can be on the line. This is why data needs to be verified to close to 100% and there needs to be no hint whatsoever of fraud.
This makes the process lengthy and costly. Sourcing the verification of the data will take up a large portion of the budget for the clinical trials.
There is also a significant sum spent on monitoring the processes. However, through the use of the cryptographic hashing systems in blockchain technology, this data will be timestamped and verified quickly and automatically. Therefore, costs can be dramatically decreased.
This will then free up funds to conduct even more trials and accelerate efforts in discovering new treatment options for a variety of different conditions.
In certain countries, health insurance is very expensive. For example, in the United States, citizens need to have some form of health insurance or else they can face a financial penalty.
A lot of insurance companies are looking at ways to use blockchain technology to keep up to date records. This could lead to changes in real time in the data of their customers. This will aid the healthcare providers and insurers to avoid fines from the authorities due to their poor record keeping.
It could also lead to better levels of treatment for those people who have moved to a different insurer.
There are also significant sums of fraud cases in the medical world. Fraud prevention systems based on blockchain technology could be implemented in order to automate the claims process and the adjudications of these claims. This will lead to lower administrative costs and can monitor claims in real time.
As you can see, there are many different applications of blockchain technology in the healthcare system. It can lead to more accuracy for medical professionals when they are diagnosing and treating patients.
It will also help to reduce the times and costs associated with clinical trials, making claims and sourcing medical records.
Finally, it can help to eliminate a large part of the problem with counterfeit drugs by tracking the supply chains from the creation of these drugs until they are delivered to the end consumer.