The health industry or the medical industry is an enormous global industry. It comprises of institutes of medical research, medical educational institutes and majorly hospitals and health care centers. The manufacturers of medical equipment and drugs are also the part of this industry. It is given immense importance owing to the pandemic. The health researchers are now adopting more technological options for the betterment of this department. One such step is the adoption of blockchain technology. The major reason behind this is to improve security, better data management and efficient health care services.

Problems with the health-care industry and the solution the adoption of blockchain will provide

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The healthcare industry is struggling with a number of issues. The most important issues are:

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Data security and management

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From managing medical records to billing information to, test reports and prescribed drugs there is a lot of data that need to be properly stored when it comes to health care industry. This data is not properly stored and cannot be made accessible to physicians outside of specific vicinity. Medical records are lost or are shared with unauthorized persons with the patient knowing. In this way the privacy of the patients is compromised.

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Solution:

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with blockchain technology the data will not be stored in a central system it will be decentralized giving full authority to the nodes to operate it anywhere they want. In addition to that the data will be encrypted by public and private keys are thus will be accessed only by the keys.

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High cost

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Currently the cost of the management o medical data, processing it and storing it into computers, processing with transactions require manual support and thus their salaries make a lot of the total medical budget.

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Solution:

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The blockchain technology allows every individual (patient or any authorized person from the family) and his physician to manage the medical records. This cuts down a lot of administrative cost. Every node can himself add, update, recover and trace his data.

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Data breaches, counterfeits and thefts

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Data breaches are a common mishap in the health care industries. The facts are manipulated and are used to blackmail the physician and patients in various ways. Additional the pharmaceutical companies face the major issues of drugs being stolen and counterfeited.

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Solution:

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With blockchain technology the data will be encrypted using the crypto graphic hashes and storing the data in the form of blocks. On the other hand various blockchain solution are being employed to ensure complete visibility and transparency in the supply of drugs, tracking point of origin of drugs and avoid wrong medications. The data for clinical trials can also be recorded on-chain.

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Insufficient accessibility to the medical records

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Today whenever a patient visits another doctor he has to fill-up various medical forms writing the same information again and again or they have to carry piles of medical histories and reports. There is not system that different treating institutes may be linked and the physicians can easily access patient’s information easily.

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Solution:

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storing the data in the form of blocks not only will bring down the cost of excessive printing of files and will be more eco-friendly but it will connect pharmacies, treating institutes and physicians. With the right set of private and public key the node will be able to easily access the information.
In addition to particular problems and solution mentioned above the adoption of blockchain will bring betterment in the field of health care by increasing efficiency, regular updation of medical conditions of patients, bring more information to the physicians in much less time to design better diagnosis, the patients will feel more safe as there will be fewer chances of their private information reaching third parties. Other than that it will also bring improvements in the field of medical research. The research data can be securely saved on-chain without the danger of being altered. The use of smart contracts will bring a lot of ease in the billing system and managing activities like permissioned transfer of patients’ medical records, reports and prescriptions, setting and rescheduling appointments or any other scheduled programs.

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The problems in the implementation of the blockchain technology

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Although it looks eminent that blockchain technology can greatly improve the healthcare industry people are reluctant to adopt it due to

• It being still in its experimental stages
  The issues such as scalability and bandwidth we see with bitcoin blockchain
• Lack of knowledge and awareness about blockchain
• It is being seen as a new stream that will need immense investment

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The famous blockchain solutions already applied to the health care industry

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Various blockchain solutions are already working for bringing in improvements in the operation of healthcare industry. These are:

FarmaTrust

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Source

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Benefits:

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It will monitor the supply-chain activities of pharmaceuticals companies and will eliminate counterfeited drugs from the supply chain
It aims to form a network of interconnected pharmaceutical companies, wholesalers, retailers and pharmacies.

Medicalchain

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Source

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Benefits:

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Have made possible for people to have medical consultations online
Regular updation of medical records
Better accessibility and management of health records

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Medibloc

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Source

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Benefits:

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A blockchain-based healthcare platform available in various languages
Increases the security and privacy of medical records

Conclusion

Above mentioned projects are very from the large number of solutions that are being developed for the healthcare system. These platforms have rose high hopes that blockchain can surely bring improvements in the field of medicine ad research. The sector will become more transparent, the data will be more secured and the efficiency of the system will increase four folds.

Cc
@yohan2on