The healthcare system in the United States is under pressure to become more innovative and cost-effective due to rising expenses, frequent data breaches, and out-of-date procedures. Blockchain technology has the potential to reduce costs, increase data security, and enhance the overall patient experience in the healthcare industry in the United States.
In order to trade Bitcoin, there is no need for a central bank. All that was needed was a cash distribution ledger in digital form. Like many medical breakthroughs, Satoshi Nakamoto discovered a superior finding in one area while he was concentrating on another. Many analysts were eager to point out that the underlying ledger, blockchain, may have wider implications after the cryptocurrency craze died down.
It’s been almost a decade since blockchain was first introduced, but what does a public ledger have to do with healthcare?
As the population ages and health care becomes more complex and expensive, the demand for healthcare has been steadily outpacing the available clinical resources for many years. A worldwide health crisis has made this dilemma much worse by increasing the demand on health services. As a result, and in order to better prepare GP practices for increased demand, NHS England urged them to implement a completely online triage system for patients. Patients no longer meet their primary care physician (PCP) face to face as the NHS undergoes a major transformation in the way it provides healthcare.
What is the use of Blockchain in healthcare?
Today, blockchain is a decentralized and secure database or warehouse used to authenticate previous occurrences. There is a distinct contrast between the “consensus-based” nature of the system and typical data warehouses. With time-stamped copies of ledgers, contention between parties is minimized and agreement on information received is solid. Growth and stability are possible because authorized users may access and reproduce the information on the network.
Data portability across many systems and services is a significant problem, despite its potential. Medical records are a person’s most prized possession, and making them available to other healthcare providers raises worries about the abuse of data.
Currently, healthcare IT solutions do not communicate with one other in a unified manner. When it comes to treatment and preventative care in the UK, your hospital records do not become part of your general practitioner’s file, although the benefits are obvious.
However, this is a problem that blockchain technology can address. This is because the chain’s goal is to keep a sequence of transactions in a form that cannot be modified or tampered with. In order to make it immutable, the encryption and openness must be combined. Peer-to-peer participants sign each transaction using a private key and then disseminate it to the network. New blocks formed by data updates are disregarded unless they have a valid signature and are not added to the chain.
In theory, blockchain may be beneficial in every case where we now rely on someone else to maintain our data in a way that facilitates our interactions. We might instead employ blockchain technology to store our medical records rather than Bitcoins. As a result, we’d be able to regain control over our data while still enabling others to access it at our discretion.
What are the healthcare applications of Blockchain?
The primary goal of Blockchain in healthcare is to create a healthcare information database that can be accessed by any healthcare practitioners, independent of the medical software they use. ”
Healthcare is about to undergo a digital change. Even if we’ve accomplished a lot in the previous decade, we’re still only at the beginning of the process. Too many healthtech firms are still focused on how we offer medical services to patients, such as video chatting with your doctor or getting your medicines delivered to your door, even though the field is booming right now!
Aiming to improve the quality of care
Approximately $11 billion is lost annually due to misunderstandings between doctors. Obtaining access to a patient’s medical records is a time-consuming and resource-draining process. Curing these diseases may be possible thanks to the advancements made possible by blockchain technology in healthcare. In a Blockchain environment, physicians and pharmacists participating in treatment are able to access and reference data from each other, leading to speedier diagnosis and individualized therapy.
While blockchain isn’t a silver bullet for the healthcare business, its benefits are undeniable and constitute an important step in the right direction. More and more healthcare providers are considering how technology may improve their operations and patient care. Patients, doctors, and other healthcare providers are excited about the potential of Blockchain to improve healthcare systems and reduce costs.
