Recent pandemic times put a new task on the agenda – dealing with lots of information obtained from patients, proper transfers of such data between different medical units, its secure storage, and so on. Luckily, the solution for tackling lots of challenges a medical industry has faced is found.
Applying advanced technologies has already become a tested way for resolving and preventing lots of problems related to dealing with medical records. Blockchain has a special place among these technologies. Most people have heard about cryptos, including healthcare cryptocurrency. But, the application of such technology is limited in fact to the imagination only.
Yes, blockchain can be effectively used not only for cross platform mobile app development but also for public health care companies, hospitals, and other institutions related to the healthcare industry. Want to know more about the new medical blockchain that helps with enhancing the operation of medical units properly and better patient experience also?
What Is Blockchain?
For those who are not aware of the essence this technology has, it is better to start with a brief explanation of that. In a nutshell, this is a system of ensuring information recording in a way that unable any subsequent operations to track, change, or cheat this system of recordings in any other way.
How is this ensured? This digital ledger of transactions is distributed and duplicated among a network of devices. Each block in this ledger contains the entire information about each subsequent transaction without an opportunity to alter it. Yes, each subsequent block is related to the previous one steadily. This is how the security and credibility of data in this ledger are ensured. A cryptographic signature is used for confirming record making.
What Is Blockchain in Healthcare? What Problems Can It Help to Solve?
Blockchain technology in healthcare works according to the same approach with one peculiarity – the data processed thanks to such technology is medical in nature. Why has this technology been applied?
Most modern healthcare systems are very fragmented. There is a lot of information accumulated about each patient in most cases. Physicians, pharmacists, laboratory experts, and other medical professionals may provide a lot of valuable information about the current state of health a patient has. But, tracking such information may become very difficult and always time-consuming. For urgent cases, this can have very negative consequences. Even apart from urgent cases, dealing with medical information that is stored in a segregated manner is far from efficient.
Simply putting this information in an electronic form is surely a good solution that is applied nearly all around the world. But, that solution may also become ineffective at some point – when the large scales of data appear. Storage of these details also becomes problematic due to not very secured web environments as cyber threats exist nearly always in this case.
Blockchain may appear as a more than effective solution for those problems. It can ensure proper accumulation and storage of medical details that can be available at any point of time. And this technology makes the storage of such details entirely safe.
In the outcome, medical professionals in different medical units may get a comprehensive and actual picture of the state of health a patient has. Double fillings are also not possible under such conditions.
Security – among TOP Priorities
Blockchain healthcare application is favorable in terms of ensuring better security of data handling and processing. Patients may not be afraid of losing important data and may securely access such at any time. These details are safe in terms of preventing major cyber risks. All blocks of details related to the patients’ medical history are interconnected without an opportunity of missing any significant details. Storage of such details at different servers makes it difficult, even to say – impossible, to hack such.
What Else Blockchain Can Do in Healthcare?
Blockchain technology in healthcare enables patients to get better control over their medical data. They can grant permission to access such information to whom they think fit. This adds convenience to the process of providing and processing personal, and medical details patients have. The process may be facilitated and accelerated a lot thanks to the availability of all important data in the blockchain distributed ledger.
During the COVID-times healthcare digital transformation, another application of blockchain has appeared. Handling information about the number of vaccinated patients has become much more convenient. Ensuring the information exchanges between different authorities as well as preparing statistics has become much easier using blockchain technologies.
Applying blockchain technologies also enables bringing more transparency to the pharmaceutical industry. Developing products may become easier thanks to advanced technologies. For instance, it may become possible and much easier to develop products, launch their testing, and clinical studies may become much easier in terms of tracking the progress and intermediary results. This can also facilitate the exchange of information with government authorities and ensure better results of such testing.
Enabling proper organization and operation of supply chains also becomes possible using blockchain. The information about such is also shared securely. Applying this technology can enable building drug supply chains without interruptions.
This technology is very perspective for application in genetics. It can safely store the genetic information of many patients and enables access a number of times faster than it was before. This can help with solving lots of issues that are genetically associated.
Blockchain use cases in healthcare are not limited. The possible ways for applying this technology are wider than it may be imagined only. Any information accumulated and stored in this industry can be processed using blockchain technology.
Examples of Blockchain Applications in Healthcare
If everything is more or less clear with the basics and problems blockchain effectively deals with, it is worth providing a couple of examples. Yes, this technology in healthcare is not some kind of abstract thing. It has been applied already in these projects.
BURSTIQ
This tool will serve well to medical institutions that store the personal details of patients. The company has implemented blockchain to enable more effective handling of personal data that patients provide to medical companies. Such details are safely stored and can be shared securely with authorized parties. The advantage this system has is that it keeps up-to-date information about the state of health patients have. The tool is also very useful at helping with managing drug prescriptions effectively.
MEDICALCHAIN
This tool preserves the originality of all medical records and effective information sharing. This means that all hospitals, laboratories, and other medical institutions may access (if they are authorized to do so) the medical records of patients from the first till the last point of the medical history. This technology also makes the storage and procession of all details safe and secured. Using this tool was even applied for providing medical consultations. Patients could consult with their doctors online and pay medical tokens for that.
Akiri
This tool enables the protection of healthcare data of patients who pass treatment. It doesn’t store that in fact. It secures that during such transmission. This adds credits to such a device as it enables the access of authorized parties during the transmission of such data from one point to another. So, patients may be calm about their personal details. Such details will be transmitted fast and securely in the cases when patients need to move from one point of medical treatment to another.
GUARDTIME
This company assists different medical companies and government authorities to implement blockchain in their security technologies. The company has already implemented that successfully in the Estonian healthcare system. It also works with companies from the United Arab Emirates to implement the same approach. This tool adds credits to the security of the medical industry and calmness to patients who share their personal details.
FACTOM
This system helps hospitals and other medical institutions to store and access the personal and medical details of their patients securely. The company records such details using blockchain and enables access to such by authorized persons only. One of the most important points here is that paper versions of medical papers are equipped with special chips that can enable access to the entire information about a patient. This is a progressive tool that adds safety and clarity to the process of dealing with personal details of patients and their medical records.
Final Words
Blockchain is some kind of a universal technology that can be applied nearly in any sphere, and a concrete way for that is limited to the imagination only. The Healthcare industry has already become a spot of such kind where this technology has been effectively applied in many sectors and for many purposes.
Medical records in blockchain are stored securely and are interrelated with each other. That adds credits to the technology and its application. All recordings are interrelated with each other and stored at different places. This decreases the risk of amending such records to zero. Patients can be calmer about the safe storage of their details and can grant permission when they think fit. The exchange of information between medical institutions has already been simplified thanks to blockchain. This technology can be freely considered as an approach that can modernize the industry dramatically after a wider spread.
