Blockchain in Healthcare: Use Cases and Examples

Imagine a digital ledger that’s tamper-proof, transparent, and decentralised. That’s Blockchain! It’s like a communal notebook where everyone can write, but no one can erase or alter past entries. 

Now, let’s zoom in on healthcare. Picture patient records, medical histories, and treatment plans—all securely stored in this incorruptible ledger. Blockchain in Healthcare promises a brighter future. How? By enhancing security, simplifying processes, and ultimately improving patient outcomes.

So, buckle up! We’re about to explore the magic of Blockchain in Healthcare and its impact on our well-being.  

Table of Contents 

1) The Need  for Blockchain in Healthcare 

2) Use Cases of Blockchain in Healthcare

3) Examples of Blockchain in Healthcare  

4) Future Scope of Blockchain in Healthcare

5) Conclusion

The Need  for Blockchain in Healthcare 

The rapid development in healthcare is driving a demand for high-quality facilities supported by modern technology, with Blockchain Technology emerging as a revolutionary force. The industry is moving towards a patient-centred approach, focusing on accessible services and appropriate resources, enhancing patient care and facility quality.

Blockchain's Impact on Healthcare:

a) Streamlined Health Information Exchange:

Reduces the time and cost of health information exchange.

b) Citizen Empowerment in Research:

Enables active participation in health research, improving care through better data sharing.

c) Centralised Healthcare Management:

Efficient management of systems through a single database.

d) Solutions for Data Challenges:

Addresses data sharing, privacy, and interoperability issues in population health management.

e) Enhanced Security and Integrity:

Improves security, real-time updates, and data integrity, crucial for wearable tech and personalised medicine.

f) Secure Data Capture:

Provides secure, easy methods for data capture and consultation, reducing security concerns.
 

Use Cases of Blockchain in Healthcare

Blockchain technology is reshaping the healthcare sector by enhancing the management of patient data, improving security, and increasing transparency. Its decentralised nature ensures data integrity, making it a game-changer in various healthcare applications. Here are some significant use cases of Blockchain in Healthcare:

1) Store Information of an Individual Patient

Blockchain offers a secure and decentralised way to store patient information, ensuring data remains safe and accessible only to authorised parties. This allows healthcare providers to access accurate and up-to-date patient records, reducing errors and improving treatment decisions. 

The Blockchain’s immutable nature prevents unauthorised data alterations, providing a reliable history of patient information that can be shared among professionals with the patient's consent.

2) Analyse the Effects of a Particular Procedure

Blockchain enables healthcare providers to securely collect and analyse data from different sources to evaluate the effects of specific medical procedures. By integrating patient data on a Blockchain, researchers can access vast amounts of information while ensuring privacy. 

This fosters more effective and personalised treatments, as the data analytics help determine the success rates and potential risks of various procedures, leading to better decision-making in patient care.

3) Validation

The validation of patient records, medication, and medical devices can be enhanced using Blockchain technology. Blockchain’s decentralised nature allows real-time verification of data, ensuring that information remains authentic and accurate. 

This validation process helps prevent fraud, ensuring that every piece of data can be traced back to its origin, which is particularly useful in clinical trials and drug development.

4) Safety and Transparency

Blockchain provides an added layer of safety and transparency in healthcare. By keeping an unalterable record of transactions, all actions related to patient data, medication distribution, and treatment plans are documented and traceable. 

This ensures accountability and trust among healthcare providers, patients, and other stakeholders. The transparency also helps in verifying the authenticity of medicines and preventing counterfeit products from entering the supply chain.

5) Health Record Keeping

Health record keeping is one of the primary use cases of Blockchain in Healthcare. Traditional health records are often fragmented and stored across multiple systems, making it difficult to maintain a comprehensive view of a patient’s health history. 

Blockchain enables the secure storage of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), making them accessible to authorised healthcare providers whenever needed. This seamless access improves continuity of care, reduces administrative burdens, and minimises the risk of lost or incomplete records.

6) Clinical Trial

Blockchain plays a crucial role in enhancing the integrity and efficiency of clinical trials. It helps manage and verify data collected during trials, ensuring that the information is accurate and tamper-proof. 

This is vital in maintaining the credibility of clinical trial outcomes, which directly impact the approval of new drugs and treatments. Additionally, Blockchain can streamline patient recruitment by securely matching candidates with suitable trials based on their medical histories, ensuring privacy throughout the process.

7) Display Information

Blockchain technology can be used to display patient information securely, ensuring that only authorised individuals can access sensitive data. This can be particularly useful in emergency situations where quick access to accurate medical information is critical. 

By integrating Blockchain with existing health information systems, healthcare providers can display up-to-date patient information securely, helping them make informed decisions quickly.

8) Identification of False Content

The decentralised nature of Blockchain makes it an effective tool in identifying false or altered medical content. By maintaining a transparent and immutable record of data entries, Blockchain allows for the verification of content authenticity. 

It ensures that medical records, research data, and other critical information are reliable. This reduces the spread of false information, which can be detrimental to patient care and public health.

9) Reduces Needless Overhead Expenses

Blockchain’s efficiency in managing data and automating processes helps reduce unnecessary overhead expenses in healthcare. By streamlining administrative tasks, such as billing, patient verification, and data sharing, Blockchain minimises manual work and the potential for human error. 

This reduction in administrative burdens leads to significant cost savings for healthcare providers, allowing them to allocate more resources to patient care.

10) Patient Monitoring

Blockchain can enhance patient monitoring by securely storing and sharing data collected from wearable devices and remote monitoring tools. This real-time data can be accessed by healthcare providers to track a patient’s condition, adjust treatment plans, and intervene when necessary. 

The secure nature of Blockchain ensures that sensitive health data remains private and protected from unauthorised access, giving patients peace of mind.

11) Maintain Financial Statements in Hospitals

Blockchain technology can streamline financial management in hospitals by maintaining accurate and transparent records of transactions. It ensures that billing, payments, and financial statements are securely recorded, reducing the risk of errors and fraud.

 Blockchain’s real-time capabilities also enhance the auditing process, providing a clear and unchangeable history of financial transactions that auditors can easily verify.

12) Improves Safety

Blockchain improves safety in healthcare by ensuring that data is stored securely and is accessible only to authorised individuals. The technology’s robust encryption methods protect against cyber-attacks, reducing the risk of data breaches that could compromise patient privacy. 

Furthermore, the ability to trace the history of data entries enhances the safety of medical records, ensuring that healthcare decisions are based on accurate and reliable information.

13) Minimise Data Transformation Time and Cost

Traditional data management methods often involve lengthy and costly processes to transform and integrate data from various sources. Blockchain simplifies these processes by providing a unified, secure platform for data exchange. 

This reduces the time and cost associated with data transformation, allowing healthcare providers to focus on delivering quality patient care rather than managing complex data integration tasks.

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Examples of Blockchain in Healthcare

We have categorised the use cases into three further sub-categories for your better understanding-  

1) Blockchain and Data Security

The most well-liked Blockchain healthcare application is keeping critical medical data safe and secure, which is not surprising. Check out how these two businesses are using Blockchain healthcare for better security. 

a) Medicalchain- Medicalchain's Blockchain creates a single point of truth while preserving the accuracy of medical records. Doctors, hospitals, and laboratories can request information on patients with a history of origin and shield the patient's identity from outside resources. 

b) Guardtime- Guardtime assists healthcare companies and governments in enforcing Blockchain in their cybersecurity processes. 

2) Blockchain Medical Records

Staff resources are depleted, and patient care is delayed due to gaining access to a patient's medical records. Medical records built on the Blockchain provide a remedy for these ailments. Check out how these four businesses employ Blockchain technology to build shared datasets and individualised health programmes.  

a) Coral Health- Coral Health uses Blockchain to streamline administrative procedures, speed up care delivery, and enhance patient outcomes.  

b) Avaneer Health- A public ledger is used by Avaneer Health to provide better claims processing, safe Blockchain healthcare data transfers, and up-to-date provider listings. 

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3) Blockchain and Medical Supply Chain Management

Pharmaceutical supply chain management is significantly impacted by this technology, and the technology's decentralised nature ensures complete transparency throughout the shipping process. 

a) Blockpharma- Pharmaceutical counterfeiting and traceability are resolved by Blockpharma. Patients can find out if they are taking fake medications using the company's app by scanning the supply chain and validating all points of shipment. 

b) Embleema- Embleema's platform enables patients to contribute to accelerating the availability of treatments and enhancing safety. 

Future Scope of Blockchain in Healthcare

With the network's members' approval, transactions can soon be logged and authenticated using Blockchain technologies. Blockchain will serve as the cornerstone of a new generation of health information exchange by offering numerical security via public and private key encryption to the patient level. 

With this technology, it is anticipated that patient records, infringement prevention, improved interoperability, procedural rationalisation, drug and prescription control, and supply chain monitoring would all be addressed. Blockchain is anticipated to do incredibly well in the field of healthcare.

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Conclusion 

Blockchain in Healthcare is revolutionising by providing a secure, transparent, and efficient way to manage medical data. From protecting health records to enhancing clinical trials, it’s reshaping patient care and fostering trust. As Blockchain continues to evolve, it promises a smarter, safer, and more efficient healthcare future. With the help of this blog, you’ve explored how Blockchain is transforming healthcare, enhancing data security, patient care, and operational efficiency across the industry.

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