Benefits of Integrating Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Systems

After unsettling the financial world with a decentralized payment system, blockchain is ready to transform the healthcare industry. Many companies in the health sector have already begun incorporating this technology. According to a statement by Statista, about 55 percent of healthcare apps will use blockchain for marketable distribution by 2025. So, why do companies use blockchain for healthcare?

Blockchain is decentralized and cryptographic; it authorizes the secure storage and transfer of patient medical histories, making it much more problematic for unauthorized parties to access these liable records. That’s not all though. Blockchain also helps manage the medicine supply chain far better than before.

The leading healthcare companies have already recognized this technology as something that could shape the industry. They are already employing it to ensure the secure treatment of patient data, boost the efficiency of medicine supply chains, and dissuade fraud.

Here, we will highlight the use cases of blockchain technology and the benefits it brings when implementing blockchain in healthcare. But before all that, let’s understand exactly what blockchain technology is.

What is Blockchain Technology?

A blockchain is a chain of blocks connected by a hashing computation. The link in the chain comprises time-stamped data records that contain confidential, financial, and private information that should be kept confidential. All data is unrestricted on a dispersed ledger to enhance transparency. Additionally, all private information is encrypted through RSA-256 and other cryptographic tools.

The healthcare industry was the first to transform following the pandemic, and blockchain soon became the preferred solution for more security, better patient outcomes, and broader access to services. Several blockchain applications in healthcare software development can significantly improve health data systems regarding security, effectiveness, accessibility, and dependability.

Use Cases of Blockchain in Healthcare

Blockchain has innumerable applications in healthcare, from enhancing patient data managing and conformity to pharmaceutical supply chain management and healthcare payment. Let’s examine the most common blockchain cases in the healthcare sector.

1.    Patient Data Management

One favorable use case for blockchain in healthcare is patient data management. When storing health records, social security numbers, or even patient bank account details, blockchain’s encryption systems ensure safe data storage. Distributed ledger technology ensures the secure transfer of patient medical records and blocks unauthorized people from accessing the data; thus, patients’ health records are kept confidential.

Data is also immovable; once information enters the blockchain, it can’t be altered without a network consensus. That helps ensure the accuracy and authenticity of a patient’s data over time. Further, the blockchain ensures that a patient’s records will be shared among various healthcare providers without issues related to data tampering.

2.    Store Clinical Trial Records

Researchers record substantial data in clinical trials of new medicines or diseases. The immutability characteristic assures that the integrity of the trial data is unharmed and cannot be tampered with or exploited. Blockchain development services providers also facilitate recording every change that can happen in clinical trials and allow for tracking details about those changes made.

Moreover, the blockchain’s consensus mechanism guarantees that several parties must compromise on any transformations to the clinical trial records. Validating every changeover and tagging it as authentic will improve trust and reliability.

3.    Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management

The healthcare system comes with the crisis of fake drugs, which are both common and risky. The toxic ingredients that come with counterfeit medications may result in unhealthy side effects on a patient’s body. Sometimes, the label on the drugs is fixed after their expiration date, and huge problems arise in the health condition of a person.

However, as per the National Crime Prevention Council, more than 10% of medications in the transnational supply chain are unnatural. Fake pharmaceuticals account for as much as 70% of pharmaceuticals in most nations’ supply chains.

5 Advantages of Blockchain in Healthcare Sector

Blockchain offers an expansive spectrum of advantages for the healthcare industry. Let’s examine the top benefits of blockchain in healthcare.

1.    Cost Savings

Blockchain for healthcare will significantly reduce the cost of operations as most activities become easy and manageable to implement. Interoperability will also become easy, and information transfer will not take longer. Blockchain simplifies many health processes, such as medical records, drug supply chain management, and claims processing, that are still done on paper or are utterly manual.

In addition, blockchain will help provide real-time visibility regarding drug and medical supply movements. This visibility, therefore, reduces the possibility of counterfeit products entering the supply chain system, thus enhancing efficiency and preventing losses through counterfeit products.

2.    Enhanced Data Security

Most healthcare data breaches have become enormous situations worldwide, impacting millions. According to a Health IT Security report, more than 39 million people are concerned about healthcare infringements. This report depicts the need for a more unassailable healthcare system.

Blockchain in healthcare ensures data security, as it offers a decentralized and safe interface to share and store patients’ data and payment information. Another advantage of blockchain’s consensus mechanism is that it accepts what people call a consensus, which has to be agreed upon by the network participants before alteration or addition. This reduces the scope for fictitious entries.

3.    Transparency

Blockchain in the healthcare sector fetches translucency to the industry in a decentralized disseminated ledger system that does not alter commerce once they are in the ledger. With blockchain in healthcare, the storage and exchange of patient data, medical records, drug supply chain information, and other critical data have become more transparent. More importantly, blockchain empowers patients to control who can have their data while keeping the whole process transparent and traceable.

4.    Seamless Sharing of Patient Information

The cryptographic abilities of blockchain in healthcare software development ensure that patient data is encrypted and unamendable when in transmission. Data is centralized across a decentralized blockchain network, which avoids requiring a central authority to control or manage access. Thus, patients and ratified stakeholders have direct control over their data and transmission.

5.    Enhanced Efficiency

Blockchain will create a secure ledger of patients’ health records, allowing the smooth sharing of information across different healthcare providers while maintaining patient consent and control. This will reduce the need for patients to repeatedly share their medical records and bring more speed and efficiency to the health system.

Conclusion

Blockchain’s impact on health care is transformative in nature. With such transformative power, blockchain development services providers can enable health organizations to protect sensitive medical data, quicken exchange, streamline processes and operations, and better serve patients’ health needs. Blockchain applications also save healthcare providers and patients much time and money.