How great would it be if you can have the entire history of your health? What if the information on every doctor’s visit, all medicines you’ve taken, and illness could be captured accurately. Yes, all this is possible with Blockchain. 

Blockchain has the capability to raise the quality of healthcare. As a matter of fact, the data stored on Blockchain can be easily shared in real-time across people or institutions. Therefore, each transaction or event is time-stamped as a permanent record. All the transactions are immutable is the icing on the cake.

Only in Public Blockchains, every individual can see the records. And on Private Blockchains, there is privacy maintained with an agreement. It means only the allowed parties can view the data. Although, many healthcare organizations are running fast. They are still dealing with several challenges. These include:

• Lack of real-time access to the patient data 
• Attached cost
• Data inconsistency 
• Lack of data security 
• Data fragmentation 

Lately, IBM conducted a Blockchain study and surveyed 200 healthcare executives from 16 countries. It has been found that 16% of them aren’t only experimenting, but are expected to create commercial Blockchain applications. They are focused on accessing new and credible information that can be kept safe and secure. Let’s dig a little bit deeper to find out the benefits of Blockchain in the healthcare industry.

Smooth and Quick Exchange of Data

When we consider the term Blockchain, data exchange is probably the first topic that comes in the mind. But, it is not limited to that. Blockchain can give technological solutions to numerous challenges. This include, health data integrity, security, and interoperability. Most essentially, Blockchain could allow the health data exchange systems to be cryptographically secured. This would eventually enable the effortless access to real-time patient health data. Moreover, it would even remove the burden and cost of data reconciliation. Example of Blockchain in healthcare sector: 

Lately, Guardtime, the data-centric security organization, has partnered with Estonian eHealth Foundation. This agreement is done to protect the health data of more than 1 million Estonian citizens accessing Keyless Signature Infrastructure.

Efficient and Transparent Billing Management 

In the present era, 5% to 10% of healthcare costs are a scam. These scams result in improper functioning of billing. In the U.S., Medicare fraud results in around $30 million loss. However, applications and systems based on Blockchain make it possible to offer realistic resolutions for minimizing fraud cases. With the implementation of Blockchain, there would be no need of third-parties or intermediaries. This would ultimately decrease the administrative costs. The process of billing would get automated, resulting in quick processes.

Integrate Drug Supply Chain 

Existing pharmaceutical organizations incur the annual loss of $200 billion due to the counterfeit drugs. Nevertheless, a system based on Blockchain could ensure a foolproof tracking of products in the supply chain at each level. 

Example: iSolve LLC is working collaboratively with several pharma organizations. Their purpose is to implement ADLT (Advanced Digital Ledger Technology) Blockchain the healthcare application for managing drug supply chain integrity. 

In addition, Blockchain developers are also developing Blockchain applications to ensure health data security, as well as interoperability. These applications would make the processes transparent and smooth.

Example: FivePharma is an application developed by Space-O. It has the capability to reinvent the way of offering training, auditing, and consulting services in healthcare. Now, the app is updated every month. It mainly focuses for a better pharmaceutical industry.

With Blockchain technology, healthcare startups such as FivePharma are on their journey to bring the revolution. It is possible to streamline the entire process involved in a supply chain. The advantages of Blockchain are not limited. It even offers some technical benefits. 

Technical Advantages 

Blockchain is based on an open-source software, open API, and commodity hardware. It has an inbuilt fault tolerance, cryptography technologies, and data encryption, which is accepted as widely as industry standards. With these competencies, the health IT systems could become simple to work with. Moreover, it even eliminates the requirement of developing complicated point-to-point data integration devices.

In addition, data from smartphones and wearables is increasing rapidly. This data is distributed all around servers at a different location. Implying, there is not a single point of failure. Because of this key advantage, the healthcare startups and professionals are vigorously looking for ideas and Blockchain developers. These developers can build next-generation Blockchain applications that can work for healthcare system betterment. 

The Bottom Line

Blockchain-based technology such as bitcoin has become the topic of awareness and curiosity for users and organizations. This technology has its impact in different sectors and healthcare is one of the best use-cases among them. With a distributed database for healthcare-associated information, there are countless benefits healthcare providers can avail. These include accessibility, safety, accuracy, etc. You can get in touch with Blockchain app developers if you want to implement it in your organization to work seamlessly.