No cheap talks! No cheap jokes! Only trustworthy information. In the current article, we are going to suggest some ideas concerning blockchain technology and its usage in the sphere of healthcare. As you remember, nowadays we can find blockchain technology in a variety of spheres. We can come across this, for instance, in charity or supply chain. Blockchain technology assists with exploring data keeping and saving.
The matter is that blockchain technology is very discussed in the healthcare world. The question arises: why does blockchain technology become great for healthcare? Let’s check it out together.
Advantages of using blockchain in the healthcare system
Do not spend our breath: let’s define some features which make it easy for crypto blockchains to become a safe record of financial transactions and also store medical information. All of these transactions are going to be crazy.
As we know, a lot of blockchains perform distributed systems. They can keep records files and, moreover, make them save via cryptography. Consequently, it becomes very hard to both disrupt and change the information. For this purpose the approval of all teams is required. Each member of the network has to approve it. By the way, we can name a feature that makes the creation of incorruptible databases for medical documents real.
We can find the whole blockchain in every network node. These nodes are able to communicate on a regular basis in order to make information up-to-date and authentic. You can say that again: decentralization as well as information distribution are too significant aspects.
In terms of governance blockchains are not always decentralized. Nevertheless, be sure that blockchains are distributed on a regular basis. Please, keep it in mind. It rings a bell when hearing that decentralization is no way a binary concept. That means that distributed systems can have different degrees of decentralization. It will depend only on the fact in what manner nodes are distributed.
Face the music, please: blockchains perform a private network when we talk about the healthcare system. Additionally, we can compare them to the public ones. They can, in their turn, be used as cryptocurrency ledgers. Without any doubt, you can easily join the development of a public blockchain. Nevertheless, it is not so easy with the private ones. You have to get permission and they are ruled by not a great number of nodes.
Potential advantages
1. Expanded security
We consider that it was not once in a blue moon that you have heard about use cases of blockchains in the healthcare industry and its advantages. To begin with, it is leveraging the technology so as to make a safe peer-to-peer database. For sure, it will be a distributed database. Blockchains’ immutability will become up for grabs for everybody and there will be lack of data corruption, without any doubt. It will be so easy just to register as well as monitor medical information about patients whatever their number is.
Back to square one, please: classical databases rely on centralized servers.
In contrast to that, a distributed system lets information exchange with bigger levels of security.
Meanwhile, administrative costs will also be reduced in this case. It is dreamy because the current system imposes this.
You will not hear about both technical issues and external attacks thanks to the decentralized character of blockchains.
A lot of hospitals can enjoy a very high security level due to blockchain networks. It is so marvelous because hospitals face hacker invasion and hackers attacks occasionally.
2. Interoperability
So far so good or another advantage of using blockchain technologies in the system of healthcare. We should not forget about the ability of enhancing interoperability amongst hospitals and different health service providers. Sometimes it is so hard to exchange required data amongst various organizations. A lot of errors can occur, unfortunately.
Do not panic because we have an admirable solution: blockchains. Thay are able to overcome this difficulty in case they let authorized sides access a unified database of patients’ information as well as medicine distribution notes. As the best of both worlds, a lot of service providers can combine and function together on a single one.
3. Transparency as well as accessibility
To continue with, blockchain systems can additionally offer patients great levels of accessibility as well as transparency concerning their own health data. It would be so easy and convenient for patients along with simplifying the process of data sharing. There can be some situations when a request for the validation of changes performed to patients’ notes are able to prove the exact noting of the notes.
In case it is done right, the type of proving is able to give an additional layer of security. There will be a fight between human errors and falsifications made on purpose.
4. Trustworthy supply chain management
No worries: blockchain technologies are able to give a trustworthy alternative for monitoring pharmaceuticals. It is done via the whole producing and distribution processes. It will minimize the issue of drug counterfeiting.
You know the fact that IoT gadgets are used to monitor several factors, for instance, temperature. Of course, blockchain technology can be helpful in order to verify safe storage and delivery states or to prove drug quality.
5. Insurance fraud protection
We also can use blockchain in order to fight against medical insurance fraud. This problem is too critical, because in America there is about sixty eight billion dollars of damage in the healthcare system each year. It is awful, definitely.
Immutable records saved on blockchains and shared with an insurance provider are able to get rid of several of the most problematic kinds of fraud. It can consist of billing for procedures that even never occured and charging for unnecessary services.
6. Clinical trials recruiting
No biggie to name another advantage of using blockchain in the healthcare system.
Of course, it is quality advancing as well as effectiveness of clinical trials.
In order to identify people that can get pros from the drugs being tested, medical information on blockchains can be used by trial recruiters, then.
Without any doubt, the described recruitment system can be useful in improvement and advancing of clinical trial enrollment.
It occurs because a lot of patients do not know relevant drug trials.
Consequently, they will never have a chance of taking part in them.
While trials are conducted, blockchains can be used to ensure the integrity of the data being collected.
Potential limits
1. Nobody argues that it gives a lot of pros to both patients and providers.
Nevertheless, blockchain technologies still experience several issues that are necessary to overcome. It should be done until it finally reaches widespread adoption in the medical sphere.
2. First costs and speed
On the provider end, blockchain solutions are likely to involve a high initial investment, a fact that certainly prevents wider adoption. In addition, distributed systems tend to be significantly slower than centralized ones in terms of transactions per second.
A big blockchain network, with numerous nodes, would probably need more time to transmit and synchronize data when compared to centralized systems. This is especially concerning for huge databases that would eventually need to store and track information of millions of patients. The problem would be even worse for large sized image files, such as computed tomography or MRI scans.
Closing thoughts
No cheap talks! No cheap jokes! Only trustworthy information. In the article, we have suggested some ideas concerning blockchain technology and its usage in the sphere of healthcare. As you see, nowadays we can find blockchain technology in a variety of spheres. We can come across this, for instance, in charity or supply chain. Blockchain technology assists with exploring data keeping and saving. Blockchain technology is very useful in healthcare.
Let’s hope that there will be a lot of blockchain technologies in this sphere as soon as possible. Take care!
