Emerging Use Cases

Enhanced Data Security and Privacy:

The healthcare industry faces significant challenges regarding the security and privacy of patient data. Traditional centralized databases are vulnerable to cyberattacks and breaches, exposing sensitive information to malicious actors. Blockchain technology addresses these concerns by providing a decentralized and tamper-resistant platform for storing and sharing medical records. Each transaction is cryptographically secured and linked to previous transactions, making it virtually impossible to alter or manipulate data without detection. This enhanced security framework not only protects patient privacy but also instills trust in healthcare systems, fostering patient-provider relationships built on transparency and accountability.

Improved Interoperability and Data Exchange:

Interoperability remains a critical issue in healthcare, hindering the seamless exchange of patient information between disparate systems and providers. Blockchain technology offers a standardized and interoperable solution by establishing a shared infrastructure for storing and accessing electronic health records (EHRs). Through distributed ledger technology, healthcare stakeholders can securely exchange data in real-time, facilitating care coordination, and reducing medical errors. Smart contracts automate data-sharing agreements and access permissions, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements while streamlining administrative processes. As a result, patients benefit from more comprehensive and personalized care, regardless of their healthcare provider or location.

Streamlined Administrative Processes:

Administrative inefficiencies, such as claims processing and billing, contribute to the rising costs and complexities of healthcare delivery. Blockchain technology has the potential to streamline these processes by automating tasks, reducing paperwork, and minimizing errors. Smart contracts enable transparent and auditable transactions, automating payment verification and adjudication based on predefined rules. This not only accelerates reimbursement cycles but also reduces the administrative burden on healthcare providers, allowing them to focus on patient care. Moreover, blockchain-based platforms enhance transparency and trust in billing practices, mitigating instances of fraud and abuse within the healthcare system.

Facilitated Research and Innovation:

Blockchain technology is poised to revolutionize medical research and innovation by improving data integrity, collaboration, and transparency. Researchers can securely store and share clinical trial data on decentralized ledgers, ensuring data integrity while protecting patient privacy. Smart contracts automate consent management and data-sharing agreements, streamlining the process of recruiting participants and collecting research data. Moreover, blockchain-enabled platforms enable real-time tracking of research activities, enhancing transparency and accountability in scientific endeavors. By facilitating data-driven insights and accelerating the pace of discovery, blockchain technology has the potential to unlock new treatments, therapies, and medical breakthroughs that can improve patient outcomes and transform the future of healthcare.

Supply chain transparency

A major challenge across the healthcare sector, as in many others, is ensuring the provenance of medical goods to confirm their authenticity. Using a blockchain-based system to track items from the manufacturing point and at each stage through the supply chain enables customers to have full visibility and transparency of the goods they are buying.

This is a top priority for the industry, especially in developing markets where counterfeit prescription medicines cause tens of thousands of deaths annually. It is increasingly important for medical devices, too, which are proliferating quickly with the adoption of more remote health monitoring, and therefore also attracting the interest of bad actors.

This transparency will boost customer confidence in drugs purchased because of the ability to track each package’s end-to-end provenance, with integration with manufacturers, wholesale, shipping, etc.

The level of compliance in the healthcare sector will also improve because medical device manufacturers and pharmaceuticals currently face high reporting burdens to ensure patient safety, so aggregating supply chain data into one system helps streamline compliance – For example, FarmaTrust’s blockchain based system provides automated law enforcement notifications when they spot an issue.

It will also result in supply chain optimization because since all the data will be in one place, companies can apply AI to better predict demand and optimize supply accordingly.

Medical staff credential verification

Similar to tracking the provenance of a medical good, blockchain technology can be used to track the experience of medical professionals, where trusted medical institutions and healthcare organizations can log the credentials of their staff, in turn helping to streamline the hiring process for healthcare organizations. US based ProCredEx has developed such a medical credential verification system using the R3 Corda blockchain protocol.

This will be highly beneficial to the industry due to faster credentialing for healthcare organizations during the hiring process.

It will also provide an opportunity for medical institutions, insurers, and healthcare providers to monetise their existing credentials data on past and existing staff.

Transparency and reassurance for partners is also guaranteed, e.g. organizations sub-contracting locum tenens, or in emerging virtual health delivery models to inform patients on medical staff experience

Remote patient monitoring in IoT

The utilization of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain advancements has found extensive application in various domains, such as remote patient monitoring (RPM). There has been swift development in crafting wearable medical devices within the IoT framework, equipped with diverse functionalities that facilitate the collection and analysis of live sensory data from patients. Data from IoT devices is gathered, analyzed, and stored centrally. However, there may be a number of drawbacks to this centralization, such as single-point failure, data manipulation, privacy concerns, etc. Blockchain's decentralized design can be used to solve these issues. Consequently, using IoT and blockchain to create a smart RPM system is a viable option. RPM is effective for treating a wide range of medical diseases, including diabetes, pediatrics, prenatal care, hypertension, and post-operative treatment. Patients can monitor their health at home with medical tools including blood pressure cuffs for hypertension, pulse oximeters for blood oxygen monitoring, glucometers for blood sugar levels, ECG machines for heart patients, and activity trackers. When one of these devices is attached to a patient, the health readings are automatically taken. The readings are then sent to the healthcare professionals who may monitor for health trends, and changes in conditions, and even be alerted when a patient's condition is likely to deteriorate using danger warnings.

Conclusions

In conclusion, blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare sector by addressing key challenges related to data security, interoperability, administrative inefficiencies among others. Its decentralized and immutable ledger system enhances patient privacy, fosters interoperability, streamlines administrative processes, and facilitates research and innovation. However, successful implementation requires collaboration among stakeholders, investment in infrastructure, and adherence to regulatory frameworks. As blockchain continues to evolve, its impact on healthcare is poised to be transformative, ushering in a new era of transparency, efficiency, and patient-centric care.