Blockchain And Its Impacts On Healthcare Industry

Healthcare is an ever-growing industry getting more and more attention by the day. The ultimate focus here is to cater for the diseased, injured and dying. Although all other processes involved are secondary, they could still present as a limiting factor, if not optimized to help the main cause. Advancement in various technologies has found revolutionary uses in this space which led to escalated growth and betterment for mankind. Blockchain, popularly known for its application in bitcoins, has extended to aid healthcare as well.

What is Blockchain?

It is known to be a digital ledger where information is distributed and stored in blocks which build-up to become chains. It can be shared and is extremely resistant to modifications, hence offering an impenetrable level of security. Typically managed by a peer-to-peer network system, it decentralizes transactions of any value which paves way for transparency, preventing acts of piracy and theft.

How is it Influencing Healthcare?

While its incorruptible nature can be extremely useful in so many industries, healthcare too can seek a great deal of help from it. Many medical organizations have already begun opening up to this revolutionizing technology and are employing it to advance medical practices. Simplification and acceleration of several complicated processes are already visible which is leading to high expectations of maximizing available resources.

Here's How Blockchain Is Impacting The Healthcare Industry:

1) Interoperability

Advanced application program interfaces can be designed to facilitate improved interoperability of health records, making storage of real-time patient data across various authorized providers efficient, preventing reconciliation. Now, several patient data can be managed and processed without much hurdles of security-related issues due to the available proof of data integrity along with timestamps. This minimizes cost and simultaneously caters for better diagnosis and treatment.

2) Transparent Billing Management

Medicare is no short of a victim to fraudulence as any other sector. Many have scammed and modified billing processes to loot money. This has been a problem which wasn't effectively overcome until the dawn of blockchain. With its influence, all billings are as transparent as a glass! Nobody can fool the government and citizens in the name of healthcare anymore! Moreover, the cost of intermediaries is also lifted due to the impeccable security provided by this technology.

3) Improved Supply Chain Management

With smart contracts, organizations can now closely monitor the entire supply chain with absolute transparency and without any hassle. Authentic information of drug and medical device production is seamlessly stored and carried from the manufacturer through to the wholesaler, pharmacy or retailer and finally even the patients. This eliminates the problem of drug counterfeit, simplifies the whole process and better yet significantly reduces cost of the management. Without a doubt, blockchain has got supply chain management covered from start-to-end.

4) Securing Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are performed to check the effectiveness of proposed drugs for specific diseases, leading to their approval or rejection. But the process can be vulnerable to tweaks and dangerous modifications which may have severely negative impacts over the outcome. In such a scenario, securing it is incredibly important and blockchain does it perfectly well. All trial records are safeguarded and maintained with utmost protection in order to avoid any kind of malpractice.

5) Consent Management

While it is possible to maintain longitudinal patient data, retrieving it still needs consent from patients. Some may not be comfortable in sharing every single detail. In this case, doctors can always check what information is permitted to seek in the blocks it and act accordingly. This saves a lot of time and clears up the air of doubt altogether.

6) MicroPayments

Healthy individuals who regularly go for check-ups or undertake specific routines can save results and sell pieces of information required by doctors and practitioners. This kind of system encourages people to stay healthy and improves analysis of medical conditions simultaneously. It will soon be trending across industry leading to the birth of a new culture in healthcare.

Future Prospects

Although it was discovered years ago, blockchain has boomed only recently. It will take some time, at least a couple of years before all medical organizations fully adopt it and increase overall performance. For now, its effects are truly promising and have boosted hope for a brighter future for the industry. Considering the changes already taking place, it will equip patients, medical practitioners, drug manufacturers and everyone alike, with robust communication portals that will solve so many limiting issues and pave way for seamless care and service.

Keep an eye for more advancement to come. They are not very far away. While overall healthcare experience is getting better and continues to be enhanced by the day, get in touch with Openwave and avail from our top-notch blockchain development solutions at highly economical rates! We are fierce players in the fields of mobile and web development and we would love to cater our personalized services for you! Get a free quote today!