Blockchain Technology In Healthcare: Trends, Applications, and What You Should Know
Blockchain technology is now playing a key role in healthcare, keeping patient data safe and tracking medicine supply chains.
With healthcare costs soaring and data breaches becoming all too common in the US, there’s a strong push for more efficiency and innovation in the industry.
That’s where blockchain can step in and reduce costs, improve data security, and boost healthcare services. It can also encrypt patient data and help track disease outbreaks.
In this article, we’ll discuss the potential of this technology for solving challenges that healthcare providers around the world face, including South Korea, and how it can help improve patient care for us, the people.
Use Cases for Blockchain in Healthcare
The future of blockchain in the healthcare industry is promising because this technology can tackle key issues that this industry faces. That being said, here’s a breakdown of a few use cases:
Managing Patient Data
With a blockchain network in place, health organizations can securely store patient records, ensure data accuracy, and prevent data breaches. This helps maintain reliable patient information, reduce errors, and improve care.
Storage of Clinical Trial Records
Clinical trials generate a lot of data, and blockchain can securely store these records. This makes it easier to verify their expertise and enhances transparency in research.
Tracking the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management
Blockchain can also track pharmaceuticals from manufacturers to patients, which reduces the risk of counterfeit drugs and drug recalls.
Remote Care
Blockchain can securely store data from telemedicine consultations and remote monitoring units. In other words, authorized healthcare providers can access the correct patient information, which improves remote care.
Seamless Exchange of Health Data
Blockchain can enable smooth health information exchange between different systems. This improves interoperability; healthcare providers can access comprehensive patient information, resulting in better coordination and care.
Tracking the Credentials of Doctors and Health Workers
Blockchain can also store and verify the credentials of healthcare experts. This ensures that only qualified individuals provide care and builds trust in the healthcare system.
Healthcare Payments
Lastly, blockchain can streamline healthcare payments with a transparent and secure method for processing transactions. This results in lower administrative costs, less fraud, and more efficient payments.
Regulatory Challenges
Although blockchain has a huge potential, it also faces several regulatory challenges in healthcare, such as the following:
- Data Privacy: Compliance with data protection laws, like HIPAA, is crucial. Blockchain’s unchangeable nature can complicate the removal of outdated or incorrect data.
- Interoperability Standards: Developing standards for blockchain integration with existing healthcare systems is necessary for widespread use.
- Legal and Ethical Issues: Addressing legal and ethical concerns, such as data ownership and consent, is necessary to protect the rights of patients.
Research shows blockchain can improve data security and privacy in healthcare.
A study by the International Journal of Intelligent Networks highlighted blockchain’s potential in managing and protecting electronic medical records (EMR). At the same time, scientific reports discovered that blockchain is pretty effective at keeping patient data safe.
The blockchain in healthcare market is projected to reach $6.11 billion by 2027. The main driving force for this growth will include private and public blockchain adoption.
All in all, blockchain has a bright future in healthcare because it benefits both patients and providers, and big healthcare organizations like Aetna and Mount Sinai already use it.
The Future of Blockchain in Healthcare: 7 Examples to Know
Blockchain technology is already making waves in healthcare and pharma. Here’s how some prominent startups in the health industry use blockchain:
1. MedRec
MedRec uses blockchain to store patient records. Patients and doctors can access accurate and secure medical records easily.
2. PharmaLedger
PharmaLedger uses blockchain to track drugs in the supply chain. It ensures patients receive genuine medications, reducing the risk of counterfeit drugs.
3. Guardtime
Guardtime offers blockchain solutions for data security. It protects patient data from cyberattacks and unauthorized access.
4. Solve.Care
Solve.Care uses blockchain for healthcare administration and payments. It simplifies billing and reduces costs, making payments faster and more transparent.
5. BurstIQ
BurstIQ creates secure data-sharing networks for healthcare. It enables safe sharing of patient information between different healthcare providers.
6. Patientory
Patientory manages patient health data with blockchain. Patients can control who sees their health information, enhancing privacy and security.
7. SimplyVital Health
SimplyVital Health uses blockchain for health data interoperability. It allows different healthcare systems to work together and share information smoothly.
Blockchain technology in healthcare makes health data more secure, accurate, and accessible. These startups show how blockchain can improve healthcare for everyone.
By securing data, increasing transparency, and making it easier to share information, blockchain can change healthcare for the better, helping both patients and providers.
Trends in Blockchain Technology within Healthcare
The way blockchain is changing healthcare is by improving medical records and ensuring the integrity of medical supply chains. Here’s how healthcare companies use blockchain.
Medical Records
Blockchain medical records matter because they ensure that sensitive health information remains secure and private, reducing the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.
Avaneer Health (Chicago, Illinois)
Avaneer uses blockchain to store medical records securely. In fact, thanks to their blockchain network, Avaneer has tamper-proof records that only authorized users can access.
ProCredEx (Tampa, Florida)
ProCredEx focuses on credential verification using blockchain. This verifies the credentials of healthcare experts, reducing administrative burden and improving trust.
Coral Health (New York, New York)
Coral Health integrates blockchain to create a unified health record for patients. This way, patients can manage and share their health data securely with different healthcare providers.
Patientory (Atlanta, Georgia)
Patientory offers a blockchain-based platform for managing health records. It allows patients to access their medical information easily while ensuring data integrity and security.
Medical Supply Chain Management
Blockchain in medical supply chain management matters because it helps track the lifecycle of pharmaceuticals. This ensures the authenticity of drugs and prevents the distribution of counterfeit medications. In other words, it enhances patient safety.
Chronicled (San Francisco, California)
Chronicled uses blockchain to track and authenticate pharmaceuticals throughout the supply chain. This helps prevent counterfeit drugs and ensures the integrity of the medical supply chain.
Embleema (New York, New York)
Embleema focuses on patient-driven health data sharing using blockchain. It allows patients to control who can access their health data, fostering transparency and privacy.
Blockpharma (Paris, France)
Like Chronicled, Blockpharma uses blockchain to trace and verify the authenticity of pharmaceuticals. This helps combat counterfeit drugs and ensures the safety and legitimacy of medications.
Tierion (San Francisco, California)
Tierion provides a platform for verifying data integrity using blockchain. It can be used in medical research to ensure that research data is reliable and has not been tampered with.
SoluLab (Los Angeles, California)
SoluLab offers blockchain solutions for healthcare applications, including supply chain management. Their technology helps streamline operations and ensure transparency in the medical supply chain.
FarmaTrust (London, England)
FarmaTrust uses blockchain to track pharmaceuticals from manufacturer to patient. This ensures the genuineness of medications and helps prevent the distribution of counterfeit drugs.
In a nutshell, blockchain helps healthcare companies overcome key challenges in healthcare and promises a safer, more efficient future for everyone.
Verifying the Credentials of Healthcare Professionals
Staff credential verification in the healthcare industry matters because it ensures that healthcare experts have legitimate qualifications. This not only builds patient trust but also ensures that patients get quality care safely.
Symplr (Houston, Texas):
Symplr helps healthcare organizations ensure their staff meet regulatory requirements by verifying their credentials and maintaining compliance.
VerityStream (Waterbury, Connecticut):
VerityStream specializes in credentialing and privileging solutions, ensuring healthcare providers’ credentials meet industry standards and regulations.
Cactus Credentialing Group (Scottsdale, Arizona):
Cactus Credentialing Group provides credentialing services specifically designed for healthcare organizations. The company checks medical staff credentials to ensure they meet healthcare standards and qualifications.
Clinical Trials and Research
Blockchain ensures clinical trial data remains accurate and confidential by storing it securely and immutably.
Blockchain can also improve participant recruitment by securely matching patient data with trial requirements. This enhances efficiency and confidentiality.
Blockchain for Health Insurance Claims and Billing
Blockchain automates the process of verifying and settling health insurance claims. This reduces administrative costs and processing times.
Moreover, blockchain helps minimize health insurance fraud by securely recording and verifying transactions. This ensures transparency and trustworthiness.
Challenges and Limitations
Blockchain in healthcare may struggle with handling a large number of transactions quickly, which could slow down data processing and affect how timely information is accessed.
Furthermore, connecting blockchain with existing medical devices is difficult because different technologies might not work well together. This can require a lot of planning and investment to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Regulatory and Compliance Issues
Another challenge is that there aren’t clear rules yet for how blockchain can be used in healthcare, especially when it comes to privacy and security.
Creating specific guidelines will help protect patient data while allowing new technology to improve healthcare.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that blockchain can improve healthcare in various ways.
It can enhance data security, make clinical trials and insurance claims more transparent, and ensure drug supply chain integrity. Companies like Avaneer, ProCredEx, and Chronicled already use blockchain and reap the benefits of this technology.
All in all, blockchain offers great solutions to some of the biggest problems in healthcare, like data privacy and fraud. However, we need to be careful about the technical and legal challenges.
Healthcare providers, regulators, and tech experts can work together to increase the benefits of blockchain and overcome challenges.
