When we hear blockchain, we think Bitcoin, but cryptocurrencies are one of thousands of possible applications for blockchain technology. Outside of the fintech space, the healthcareindustry is investigating blockchain and the applications that can be built on top of it as potential solutions for a unique set of digital information management and privacy concerns.
The healthcare industry is ripe for disruption by emerging technologies, including the Internet of Things, AR / VR, wearables with improved sensors and connectivity, and blockchain, which could solve problems that impact healthcare providers, researchers, and patients. An IBM study found that more than 50% of healthcare executives expect to implement commercial blockchain solutions by 2020, with 17% expecting to have deployed blockchain applications at scale in 2017.
It’s important to distinguish blockchain technology from the applications that can be built on a blockchain, such as smart contracts. Blockchain is defined as a “shared, immutable record of peer-to-peer transactions built from linked transaction blocks and stored in a digital ledger”.
- Immutable. It means that once data is written to the blockchain ledger, it can’t be removed.
- Shared. The entire blockchain is stored on many different nodes. There is no central control. The blockchain can be used as a ledger which “points to” encrypted and signed data stored elsewhere, so “shared” blockchain doesn’t imply that all the data being managed is shared. Blockchains can also store sensitive data encrypted with a private key, so that access can be limited to authorized individuals and organizations.
- Decentralized. A significant proportion of the network has to “agree” to any changes, which means that no single node or organization can corrupt or add misleading data to the blockchain as a whole. Blockchains can be trusted even if the organizations that use it don’t trust each other.
That’s interesting, but abstract, so let’s take a look at a couple of concrete examples of the ways blockchains are being used in the healthcare field.
Drug Supply Chain Management
How do organizations that handle controlled substances like drugs track the origin and supply chain of those substances? Today, the answer is a mess of paper audit trails and heterogeneous databases. Blockchain is an alternative. When a manufacturer produces a drug, they tag it with a number and add a hash of that number to a blockchain along with some other information.
A drug wholesaler takes delivery, verifies the source, and adds the transaction to the blockchain. The retailer or pharmacist does the same, and by the time the drugs reach the patient, they can verify every step of the journey — as can other interested parties such as regulators and law enforcement organizations.
Clinical Trials And Research
Healthcare research is riddled with non-optimal practices, from failing to publish relevant results to errors to outright fraud, all of which have a serious impact on patient care.
Blockchains are immutable, which means that they could be used to record trials and related information, laying the research process open to scrutiny and verification.
That’s two of many possible applications of blockchain technology in the healthcare industry. Forward-looking healthcare organizations would be wise to begin investigating blockchain applications and building internal expertise through strategic hiring and technical training.
Source: https://datafloq.com/read/blockchain-will-transform-healthcare/4100
