Blockchain in Healthcare – A complete guide for 2020

Blockchain is a peer to peer (P2P) distributed ledger technology for a new generation of applications that establishes transparency and trust.

It records and verifies data in a tamper and revision – the proof way that is public to all, that’s how all started in the health industry and blockchain,  

Blockchain has the potential to substantially impact the healthcare industry as a whole to payers, providers, and patients with respect to a wide range of some major use cases or applications. 

Below are some use cases of Blockchain in Healthcare industry.

Some Use Cases of Blockchain in Healthcare

• Secure patient data – Securing the data and information and keeping it safe is the most popular application of blockchain healthcare at the moment.

Security is a major issue in the healthcare industry.

Between 2009 and 2017, more than 176 million patient records were exposed to data breaches.

The perpetrators stole credit card and banking information, as well as health and genomic testing records. 

Blockchain is a distributed and decentralized public ledger and is a wizard technology so far to protect the log of patient databases.

It is private and conceals the identity of any person with complex and secure codes. It is being decentralized is the major factor where an individual and healthcare providers share information safely and swiftly. 

• Streamline care and prevent costly mistakes – The time-consuming process of obtaining access to a patient’s medical records exhausts staff resources and delays patient care.

The decentralized nature of the technology creates one ecosystem of patient data that can be quickly and efficiently referenced by doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, and anyone else involved in treatment.

In this way, the Blockchain in Healthcare can lead to faster diagnoses and personalized care plans. 

•  Drug traceability – Counterfeiting is a major problem for the pharmaceutical supply chain management. 

1. 10 – 30 % of drugs sold in developing countries are counterfeit. 
2. The market exceeds $ 200 B annually. 
3. China and India are the major manufacturers.
4. Ingredients and dosages are impacted – which may cause adverse reactions or not provide the expected treatment. 

 Blockchain decentralization virtually guarantees full transparency in the shipping process.

Once a ledger for a drug is created, it will mark the point of origin (laboratory).

The ledger will then continue to record data every step of the way, including who handled it and where it has been until it reaches the consumer.

The process can even monitor labor costs and waste emissions.

The challenge of tracking and tracing the solution is to enable ad hoc connections and provide a means to verify the newly connected partner.

How it works – 

1. Blockchain in Healthcare provides security in the process
2. Manufacturer marks with the unique code
3. It is produced for the drug which contains all the relevant information
4. The drug information is stored on the blockchain
5. Each time the drug is moved in the process, that information is stored on the blockchain – wholesaler verifies and sends it to the pharmacist, pharmacist delivers to the patient. 

• Breakthroughs in Genomics – In 2001, processing of the human genome cost $1 billion and today it costs around $1000.

The potential of genomics to improve the future of human health, once a dream is now a scientific and financial reality.

Blockchain is the best fit for this growing industry and also works as a marketplace where people can sell their encrypted genetic information to create a wider database, giving scientists access to valuable data faster than ever before. 

• Clinical trials – Blockchain has the ability to produce considerable amounts of data from the trials themselves including safety, efficiency, and quality data in which mistakes or fraud may occur.

It can happen if someone touches the data or collection of data may not be standardized. Outcome switching, data dredging, and selective publications of results may occur and may also affect protocol development. 

Blockchain provide authentication and prevent modification : 

1. Provides proof of existence and transparency for verification of trial data
2. Would include the trial protocol, results, site information, required consents, etc.
3. Secure data sharing among research communities
4. The trial protocol may have a unique signature recorded on the blockchain

• Enforces Interoperability – With smart contracts, it ensures recording health reports on a digital ledger.

The patient can easily change doctors and hospitals without the need to transfer their health records and fill in numerous forms to recover their data, which opens the door for errors and compromises record safety.

With this, only access information changes. Ideally, the patient should be able to walk into any clinic of choice (even in a foreign country) and grant clinic access to their medical records by entering her private key.

This is blockchain interoperability in action, and while it’s still a work in progress, many companies contribute to pushing this topic to the forefront of innovations right now. 

• Health Insurance – Blockchain is an open-source public ledger that enforces the elimination of the intermediaries.

If a patient buys their medical insurance policy using smart contracts, the policy details will be stored in the patient’s profile on the blockchain and be less prone to hacking than when stored in a traditional database.

This will also eliminate the need to file time-consuming insurance claims.

When a patient undergoes a procedure covered by insurance, the smart contract will be triggered automatically and the money will be transferred from the payer to the hospital.

Benefits of Blockchain in Healthcare industry 

The benefits of Blockchain in Healthcare are numerous.

It improves the safety of  Single, longitudinal patient records, Master patient indexes, Claims adjudication,  Supply chain management, Interoperability.  

1. Single, longitudinal patient records: It compiles, disease records, sample results, treatments can be achieved through blockchain, including inpatient, ambulatory and wearable data. Healthcare providers are working on better ways of delivering care. 
2. Master patient indexes: Often when dealing with healthcare data, records get mismatched or duplicated. With blockchain, the entire data set is hashed to a ledger, and not just the primary key. The user would look for the address- there can be multiple addresses and multiple keys, but they will all yield to single patient identification.
3. Claims adjudication: Since blockchain works on a validation-based exchange, the claims can be automatically verified where the network agrees upon the way a contract is executed. Also, since there is no central authority, there would be fewer errors or frauds. 
4. Supply chain management: Blockchain-based contracts can assist healthcare organizations in monitoring supply-demand cycles through its entire lifecycle- how is the transaction taking place, whether the contract is successful, or if there are any delays.
5. Interoperability: Interoperability, the very promise of blockchain, can be realized by the use of sophisticated APIs to make EHR interoperability and data storage a reliable process. With blockchain networks being shared with authorized providers in a secure and standardized way, that would eliminate the cost and burden associated with data reconciliation.

Conclusion

Cryptic Ocean is a blockchain technology company that provides end-to-end blockchain development and blockchain consulting services to multiple business domains.

Our goal is to help companies adopt new technologies and simplify complicated issues that arise during technology evolution.

Contact us for the best solutions about the use of blockchain technology to solve the toughest challenges faced by the world today.

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