How Blockchain is Transforming the Healthcare Industry?

• By Amardeep Singh Sandhu

• 22nd July 2022

Blockchain is an increasingly widespread technology that has made it possible for many industries to view and share data securely. However, the vast majority of people associate blockchain technology with cryptocurrencies.

 However, the scope of its use has expanded greatly, and today practically every industry—including the healthcare industry—uses blockchain technology.

What is Blockchain? 

Blockchain, a core component of the digital currency “Bitcoin,” was created in 2008. It is a distributed and decentralized “write-once, read-only” record of digital events exchanged via a peer-to-peer network in chronological order.

Blockchain for business records database exchanges and transitions that can be distributed and shared among authorized users. What makes Blockchain distinct from other technologies is that users cannot remove or add any records. In addition, not even a single transaction occurs without the validation of all required users. 

Blockchain in Healthcare 

The present-day healthcare infrastructure system is often known as inadequate to handle information exchange, requiring specific tweaks. 

Blockchain has completely changed how data and healthcare can be viewed together, going beyond the “innovation trigger.”

Since the healthcare industry deals with confidential medical data and demands private access to information, blockchain may simply streamline medical records and enable sharing in a secure way. Therefore, scalability, security, and data privacy are all provided solely by technology.

This is undoubtedly the main factor why the global Blockchain in the healthcare market size is increasingly growing. Of course, to run a healthcare organization, you don’t need to have first-hand technological experience; this is where Blockchain development services can be useful. But you need to be aware of what Blockchain can do for you. So, let’s look at some significant Blockchain use cases in the healthcare sector.

Blockchain Healthcare Uses in Digital Health

A major challenge in the healthcare industry, as in many other industries, is verifying the provenance of medical goods to confirm their legitimacy.

Using a blockchain-based system to track items from the point of manufacture and at each stage along the supply chain allows customers to have complete visibility and transparency of the products they are purchasing.

This is a major problem for the industry, especially in developing markets where counterfeit prescription medicines cause tens of thousands of deaths each year. In addition, as more remote health monitoring is implemented, it is becoming increasingly important for medical devices as well, which are expanding quickly and drawing the attention of dishonest actors. 

Advantages of the Blockchain (Paired with AI):

Customer confidence: The customer’s ability to track each package’s end-to-end provenance, with integration, with manufacturers, wholesalers, shipping, etc.

Compliance: Manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices face high reporting burdens to maintain patient safety. By combining supply chain data into one system, compliance can be made easier. For instance, FarmaTrust’s blockchain-based system sends automated alerts to law enforcement when it detects a problem.

Supply chain optimization: Companies utilize AI to more precisely forecast demand and modify supply when all the data is in one place.

— Patient-centric electronic health records: 

Healthcare systems around the world struggle with data silos, which only give patients and their medical professionals an incomplete picture of their medical history.

One solution to this problem is to create a blockchain-based medical records system that can be connected with current electronic medical record software and function as an overarching, single view of a patient’s record. Every hash function is unique, and only the data owner—in this case, the patient—can decrypt it with their consent.

In this scenario, each time a patient record is modified or they agree to disclose a portion of their medical information; a transaction is recorded on the blockchain. A leading example of a business collaborating with healthcare providers to implement blockchain-enabled EMRs is Medicalchain.

— Medical staff credential verification: 

Blockchain technology is also used to track the experience of medical professionals, similar to tracking the provenance of a medical good. Reputable healthcare organizations and institutions can log the credentials of their staff, which streamlines the hiring process for these organizations. ProCredEx, a US-based company, developed such a system for verifying medical credentials using the R3 Corda blockchain protocol.

The blockchain system’s main advantages are:

— Quicker credentialing during the recruiting process for healthcare organizations

— A chance for medical facilities, insurers, and healthcare providers to monetize their current credentials data on past and current employees

— Transparency and assurance for partners, such as companies using locum tenens as a subcontractor or new virtual health delivery models that let patients know about the qualifications of the medical personnel

— IoT security for remote monitoring: 

One of the biggest trends in digital health is the usage of remote monitoring solutions, where different sensors recording patients’ vital signs are used to help give healthcare practitioners more visibility into patients’ health, enabling more proactive and preventative care.

Security, however, is a significant problem in health IoT, both in terms of ensuring that data of the patient is private and secure and that it is not altered to create incorrect results. In some cases, when a connected device may be needed in an emergency, such as alerting an old person’s care provider that they have had a heart attack or fallen, it is also crucial that the supporting systems be extremely resilient to DDoS or other attacks disrupting service.

How Blockchain Technology Could Help Secure IoT Devices Used for Remote Monitoring?

Blockchain cryptography protects personal data saved on the blockchain as a distinct hash function so that only authorized parties can access it. 

Once patient data is stored as a hash function on the blockchain ledger, it becomes nearly impossible to alter because doing so would need access to all previously stored copies.

The decentralized nature of blockchain allows IoT devices to communicate directly with one another, which makes man-in-the-middle and DDoS attacks more difficult because the majority of IoT connections now go through a central server.

How Deftsoft Can Help You?

If you’re looking for blockchain solutions in the digital health industry, you can contact Deftsoft for the best results. Our team of Blockchain experts can help you create customized blockchain solutions as per your project requirements. Contact our team to discuss your project.