Blockchain technology has had an almost revolutionary effect on almost every industry that manages data – including the healthcare industry. Blockchain in healthcare has the potential to completely change the way both consumers and service provider’s access and store data while improving their current model in every way.
Right now, the healthcare industry has amassed more data than it knows what to do with it. Due to the overflow of information that needs to be stored due to a patient’s medical history, billing, clinical records and more it can become exceptionally hard to keep all that data in one especially when it’s spread across multiple different doctors and service providers.
According to Digital Authority Partners, with blockchain technology, patients, as well as doctors, can get rid of the middle-man to collect and manage all the data regarding a patient while keeping it easily accessible and safe.
What is the Blockchain Technology?
If you thought that the blockchain was all about cryptocurrency then you’re wrong. While the blockchain did gain mainstream awareness due to its use in cryptocurrencies it has an unimaginable number of possibilities.
Blockchain can be defined as a decentralized system in which transactional or historical records can be stored, maintained and expanded while allowing the user to share said data across peer to peer connections between networked database systems.
It acts as a public digital ledger that offers high security which makes it a great choice for storing all the data the healthcare industry has amassed and keeps amassing every year. The existence and benefits of the blockchain have become so hard to ignore that a vast number of health execs see implementing blockchain in their business model one of their top priorities for 2019.
So, what are the applications of blockchain in the healthcare industry and how can it disrupt the industry in favor of consumers and service providers?
Benefits of Blockchain In The Healthcare Industry
Currently, the healthcare industry uses a centralized data storage system that’s inconvenient and not as safe as they would like you to think. Here are a few ways in which blockchain can revolutionize the healthcare industry sooner than you think.
Keep Data In One Place
Every year the number of patients increases which means the healthcare industry has to generate more data but without a proper place to store all the data it can be hard to keep everything organized.
If you change doctors or hospitals it can become rather hard for them to find and process your data like medical insurance claims and electronic health records.
This is where blockchain comes on the picture.
According to Healthcareweekly, one of the biggest advantages of blockchain is that it allows you and healthcare providers that you permit to easily enter, verify and correct your data while maintaining its integrity.
When a healthcare service provider employs blockchain properly they will be able to revolutionize data sharing and interoperability while being able to make real-time updates to that information which they can be accessed peer-to-peer.
Improved Data Protection & Security
Compared to normal encryption most hospitals and healthcare providers use, blockchain offers vastly superior protection for your data. One of the key benefits of blockchain technology is an added layer of protection it offers.
Though the blockchain is a public edge only people with specific keys can access your data which not only makes storing data safer but also recording, transmission, and sharing everything from your medical bills to upcoming appointments while maintaining your privacy.
By creating proof-of-data integrity, you can stop relying on 3rd parties all together allowing both healthcare providers and patients verify the data being added or stored without getting a middle man involved to minimize the risk of your data being compromised.
Simpler & Efficient Patient Consent Management
No matter how you look at it, the current process of Patient Consent is way more complex than it needs to be and takes up a lot on unnecessary time. With all the permissions, opt-ins and multiple other options, you have to go through for approving consent it becomes a mess that’s hard to follow and understand.
By using blockchain, modern health care facilities can make smart decisions to handle and share a patients healthcare data. By keeping a patient’s data in one place using blockchain allows healthcare providers the ability to rapidly generate, share and manage data while complying with state and federal data privacy laws drastically simplifying the current consent process we have.
Fill Up Hospital Forums In Advance
If you’ve ever had to fill up a hospital form before then you should already aware of the long queue times and the time-consuming process of filling the form. Not to mention all the information you need to keep on hand to fill it out, which is why it’s safe to say no one likes going through it. But, thanks to blockchain technology, we might finally have a solution that’s both practical and easily implementable.
Using blockchain technology, companies like Kalibrate Blockchain are already making changes to simplify and speed up the process for everyone.
Using a mobile app you can fill out a medical form in advance using Blockchain so that you can avoid long lines and save yourself time. It will also help hospitals and healthcare institutions speed up their workflow.
More Effective Drug Traceability
Every year, the healthcare industry loses billions of dollars due to fake drugs circulating in the market which goes without saying is bad for both consumers and providers. The current healthcare industry just doesn’t have a system that traces the circulation or verify authentic drugs but with blockchain that just might change.
With blockchain, the movement of every drug through the supply chain can be recorded and time-stamped while making sure that the information can’t be altered. By simply verifying a product with the data in the blockchain will be enough to help manufacturers, distributors, and retailers verify the origin of a drug to make sure their customers are getting the real thing.