Patient centric healthcare with blockchain technology
In healthcare with blockchain the same information on the blockchain could allow individual patients to easily unlock and share their health data with other providers or organizations, through a shareable private key. This could help to make health information technology (HIT) interoperable and collaborative between different users. Blockchain has the potential of eradicating the issues plaguing the industry and reforming healthcare by keeping the patient at the very crux of the medical ecosystem system and establishing increased security, interoperability as well as privacy of stored patient records.
Every year, the healthcare industry carries out approximately 30 billion healthcare transactions, of which, 50% are counterfeit. The problem of counterfeiting is not just limited to drug manufacturers, but extends to medical instruments manufactures. These costs the industry a whopping $250 billion. And despite the high costs, 63% of physicians do not receive the data on time or receive inadequate information through referral letters. 400,000 deaths are recorded each year due to administrative mistakes, and 80% of these are due to miscommunication of patient-related data. Another issue with today’s system is manual documentation, where each provider fills almost 20,000 forms per year with an average cost of $20 for every documentation.
The promise of healthcare with blockchain has widespread implications for stakeholders in the health care ecosystem. Capitalizing on this technology has the potential to connect fragmented systems to generate insights and to better assess the value of care.
Blockchain could reinvent the way patient’s electronic health records (EHR) are shared and stored by providing safer mechanisms for health information exchange of medical data in the healthcare industry. The system will ensure patient privacy protection and guarantee security with respect to the requirements for health care data management, including the access control policy specified by the patient. With increased specialization of health care services and high levels of patient mobility, accessing health care services across multiple hospitals or clinics has become very common for diagnosis and treatment, particularly for patients with chronic diseases such as cancer. With informed knowledge of a patient’s history, physicians can make prompt clinical decisions for smarter, safer, and more efficient care.
Healthcare with blockchain Market – Notable Developments
- In September 2018, Taiwan-based Taipei Medical University Hospital established an online blockchain technology-based healthcare platform to improve management of patient data among medical institutes of the country.
- In January 2019, Aetna, now owned by CVS Health, collaborated with PNC Bank and IBM to design a blockchain healthcare network initiative which also includes Anthem and Health Care Service Corporation.
- In February 2019, CSE SG, a Singapore-based startup introduced a new generation Smart Contract 2.0 that features super-fast blockchain 3.0 technology. The company has partnered with the healthcare service providers in Thailand and Korea to integrate Smart Contract 2.0 with an aim to improve the healthcare management processes.
India has taken a few preliminary steps in this direction. CallHealth, provides healthcare platform and has partnered with ThynkBlynk, to use its proprietary Blockchain technology, ChainTrail, which enables different healthcare service providers to integrate and securely share their data on the network.
