The role of blockchain in the healthcare industry!

We’ve spoken enough on what the blockchain technology is and how it functions. This time it is going to be all on how ‘blockchain benefits’ in the healthcare industry are going to make our lives a lot better.

If you have questions like what blockchain solutions are for healthcare, why it is mandatory and anything beyond that, just a few skimming and scanning here and there through this blog, you’ll reach your answers.

Any real-life examples?

There is a lot that the blockchain technology has been transforming in recent years. The best example I could give you is UPS tracking a whole load of steak from Kansas to Tokyo. The shipping giant was able to achieve it by integrating blockchain in its regular tracking system.

Now that’s a solid real-life example from the blockchain for the supply chain. I completely get that you want examples from the industry that we’re talking about. Hold your horses! We have a lot to discuss before all that.

Blockchain in the healthcare 2019

The healthcare sector is an ever-growing industry with numerous discoveries and inventions taking place every year. However, it is disheartening to know that it has the most threats compared to any other industry.

In the year 2019 healthcare has witnessed numerous downfalls, which could be prevented with blockchain otherwise. One such example comes ahead

A lot of practices do their best not to let their patients change to other doctors. Hence, they try information blocking. It was shocking to discover that it is a widespread activity and curbing it is a tedious task.

The shocking revelations are here!

7 in 10 people who we meet in our everyday lives are known to have faced information blocking, data breach, wrong treatment due to identity mismatch and whatnot during their medical course. Why them? You and I could soon be a victim of one of those issues (Not trying to threaten you. Just stay safe)

Do the threats end here? No. Absolutely no. What other serious issues does this industry face? Let’s take a quick look!

The Health Research Funding Organization has revealed some information that would shock most of us!

• WHO states that 16% of the fake drugs contain the wrong ingredients and 17% of drugs are made with an improper level of the ingredients.
• The lack of decentralized, secure storage options for research data, creates an unnecessary repetition in the process.
• The worth of the counterfeit drug market soars as high as $200 billion every year.
• Early this decade, around 60 types of Pfizer medicines and products were duped.
• Around 30% of the drugs sold in developing countries are counterfeit.
• $75 billion worth of drugs are sold on the internet alone.
• The origin of dupe drugs is mostly China or India.

Dreadful enough to create a mini heart attack on anyone who is already scared. None of us know if we’re consuming the right medicine to date. All we know is that the drugs work great or they just don’t.

Also, many a time we ignore to observe whether the drug causes any kind of side effects. Let alone the side effects half of us wouldn’t realize that our headache hasn’t gone down even after 3 dosages.

What’s the best blockchain solution in the healthcare industry?

Blockchain in healthcare in the year 2019 has witnessed numerous hypotheses. Having said that, it is not shocking to know the ugly truth of the industry. Despite the chaos that this domain faces, a handful of healthcare companies have started to implement blockchain for day-to-day usage.

We have you some top blockchain healthcare use cases that you should never miss.

Medical records transparency

As mentioned earlier, a lot of practices try to retain their clients as much as possible. In such a case, they make moving to the next doctor the toughest job possible.

Maintaining all the medical records of the patient with details of medications, history of illness, and recovery on a decentralized ledger would help them change doctors swiftly with no hassles. Also, the doctors and the patients can monitor it with just a tap.

Besides that, a decentralized ledger is less vulnerable to one point failure, which makes it more secure and a wonderful choice.

Implementing blockchain in the healthcare industry in this method will make it less prone to threats.

Cutting costs with blockchain tech

Cutting costs with blockchain is wonderfully effortless unlike many people think. One of the leading healthcare concerns has drafted a blockchain-based healthcare application

This application delivers consequential data on what happens after the patient leaves the practice. Data of this type is essential to determine where the hospital is heading in the next half a decade.

It would take at least 6 years for the hospital to bring out such substantial information with proof and to conclude on one specific outcome. Blockchain, on the other hand, has reduced the time, money and most importantly the manpower required.

Easy maintenance of medical records

When hundreds and thousands of patients visit a hospital, making paper records for each of them and trying to track them down would be tedious.

However, storing every detail on the distributed decentralized ledger like blockchain would curb manual errors, misuse of data, wrong identification of the patient and a lot more.

Every day one person dies solely due to misinterpreting the name or disease!

The reasons could be innumerable. Reading hand-written medical records that are not legible, trying to get information from the patient when he or she is drowsy due to medicines are just a few to name.

Having a decentralized ledger with special keys granting access to required people would cut down human errors.

End drug counterfeit and curb black market

As we saw earlier, drug counterfeiting is a major threat that curtails the growth of this industry. Apart from being a hindrance to the growth of the industry, it causes insecurity for many lives.

This is a serious matter to consider while looking into blockchain benefits. Supply chain management in the blockchain would help the doctors, patients and everyone track the origin of the medicine. This helps identify the fake ones, the expiry date, place and time of manufacture and other crucial data.

Final thoughts

The blockchain technology in healthcare 2019 has seen a surge as numerous healthcare companies have started research. However, the improvement would come only when it is all implemented in the industry.

A day would come when blockchain-based mobile applications would rule not just the healthcare industry but the whole world.

If you are curious to be the pioneer and lead your rivals, here we come to give you a helping hand. Our doors are wide open.

Key Takeaways

• Blockchain in the healthcare industry is the need of the hour, which is undeniable.
• The decentralized nature of blockchain helps maintain open records with better trust and privacy.
• UPS has used blockchain in 2019 to track its shipment. It can be implemented in the healthcare industry to track back the origin and every detail of the drugs.
• Submitting every minute data concerned with the drugs will help maintain transparency throughout the chain.
• A practice can maintain better privacy of the patient by giving access to details for only people (doctors from other practices) who require it.
• Manual errors like misinterpreting the patient’s personal details or disease history can be kept in the bay with blockchain in the healthcare industry.