HEALTHCARE
The healthcare record-keeping infrastructure is battling an issue known as interoperability, which refers to the way that health information systems communicate across organizations in order to provide holistic healthcare. Since people have vastly varying needs, it's important for specialized health care providers to access previous health records in order to build a comprehensive patient profile.
Blockchain’s ability to both provide decentralized record-keeping as well as ensure privacy and control over identity data could revolutionize the ways that our communities stay healthy. Blockchain's unique characteristics could:
The MediLedger Project is an organization using blockchain applications to verify the pharmaceutical supply chain right now.
See the Global Blockchain in Healthcare 2018-2025 Report here, or a free review of the report here.
Blockchain’s ability to both provide decentralized record-keeping as well as ensure privacy and control over identity data could revolutionize the ways that our communities stay healthy. Blockchain's unique characteristics could:
- open a path for a universal patient identifier, so that health data can be matched to the proper individuals, even when data is transferred between healthcare systems.
- allow for greater control over personal information by providing security over health data and autonomy over access to medical records.
- make medical record keeping on the blockchain a much cheaper alternative than current health care data systems by both providing security and cutting time costs in cross-organization communication.
- cut counterfeit pharmaceuticals and drugs around the world by tracking clinical trial and drug data to make it verifiable. This would hold all editors of the blockchain, or all drug transaction points, accountable.
- make doctor-patient in-office care more efficient by organizing layers of information verification and record keeping in one digital place.
- assure better patient delivery of pharmaceuticals and drugs.
- and many more potential use cases.
The MediLedger Project is an organization using blockchain applications to verify the pharmaceutical supply chain right now.
See the Global Blockchain in Healthcare 2018-2025 Report here, or a free review of the report here.
Cons
The disruptive potentials of blockchain technology are still emerging, and there are still many potential risks. Notably, security of the blockchain remains a large issue.
For personal healthcare data, access to your own individual data is important as well. With the way that the digital key works now, losing this digital identifier would also cause you to lose access to the blockchain.
Additionally, the investment cost in creating a blockchain-healthcare ecosystem would be huge since all organizations integrated in the system would need to install technology that could communicate with other blockchain users in the system.
For personal healthcare data, access to your own individual data is important as well. With the way that the digital key works now, losing this digital identifier would also cause you to lose access to the blockchain.
Additionally, the investment cost in creating a blockchain-healthcare ecosystem would be huge since all organizations integrated in the system would need to install technology that could communicate with other blockchain users in the system.