With the advent of Blockchain, the way we conduct businesses has been redefined.
Significantly reducing our dependence on centralized approving authorities, Blockchain has emerged as a disruptive technology that has helped in easing business process by establishing a unique level of trust, accountability and transparency.
The possibilities and application of Blockchain in various industries are limitless, in this series we showcase the various industries that would benefit from the inclusion of Blockchain technology.
Blockchain in Healthcare
The objective of a technology to transform an industry lies in its ability to address the burgeoning problems with solutions that are both viable and feasible.
Coming to the Health Care industry, it is a massive sector both in terms of size and the population it serves.
Health care can certainly be expensive.
According the statistics from the world bank,
health care accounts for almost 10% of GDP spending across the world.
Source
While the healthcare industry is challenged by dynamic factors such as a rapidly increasing population, ageing patients, rise of chronic diseases and keeping abreast with increasingly evolving technology, there are certain facets of the industry which would be better served if they are linked with Blockchain technology.
What Are The Challenges And How Can They Be Addressed?
Healthcare services are closely tied with insurance companies, which cover the healthcare costs of patients. With growing population and increasing medical expenditure, it is critical to understand the legitimacy of these expenses with a focus on controlling costs and reducing misuse of the system.
Another import aspect to consider in Healthcare is the Billing Value Chain. The healthcare ecosystem is comprised of multiple entities which form its interlinked billing chain. Keeping track of a start to end chain that occurs during a single medical event with proper documentation, flows and management to adhere to proper protocols can be strenuous and challenging.
And one important area that concerns most industries is the matter of Security. From managing confidential patient files to staving off fraudsters and scammers, the healthcare industry unfortunately notches up high operating costs owing to security breaches.
Blockchain can provide the perfect solution to these challenges facing the Health Care industry:
By affording several innovative advancements, like
- Increasing Scalability
- Reducing Complexity
- Maintaining Data Privacy
- Increasing Accuracy
- Improving Security
Source
Medical researchers, care givers, health care providers and participants in the health care industry can be greatly benefited through the use of Blockchain wherein a single storage location would comprise of all health data, which could be tracked in real-time and secured through data access permissions set at the granular level.
Being a public, transparent, distributed ledger, the Blockchain is perfectly suited to track Medical records from the origin of transaction to delivery, addressing the issue of duplication and manipulation, while at the same time eliminating the dependence on intermediaries.
Overall, Blockchain technology can vastly benefit the Healthcare business by enabling them to minimize costs in several areas without compromising on the security capabilities of business transactions.
Every industry needs to keep themselves linked with the latest developments at the risk of becoming outdated, and Blockchain based transactions will allow the Healthcare industry to imbibe a system of transparency, authenticity and innovation that will foster growth and advancement of the industry as a whole.
Author: @jznsamuel
Nice post! I also believe the blockchain may revamp the healthcare industry. With an ageing population and already skyrocket increase in expenditure new innovations are needed. I think for example blockchain could potentially change whole medical fields, such as pathology (I am a pathologist).
Awesome seeing posts from you guys! :) I have heard a lot about the community you guys are running. It's really awesome.
Yeah I'm curious to see where blockchain will be in the next few years.. There are going to be SOOO many coins haha!
I gave this account a follow. Talk soon!
This is huge field to tackle and i hope it will soon be implemented, but it is going to be hard because current health players make too much money and have too much power. It is not like currency where you give power back to people with crypto, you still need medical institutions which are mostly under government or work closely.
One can only hope for uncoraptable people in government to seize this amazing opportunity.
Hi ,
Very interesting read, Thanks you for sharing it!
look my post about waves
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@superpako/waves-plataform-and-lease-cryptocurrency
Take a look at datum.network. It isn't a concept that is directly related to your article but it looks like a project that in time, could really assist healthcare companies by allowing easier access to big data.
Blockchain is really what we were waiting and hoping for, A break from the vile centralized banksters, governments and big corporations. I shared the almost the same thing 2 days back. Cheers 👍
I work as a rank and file for an insurance company and really see the benefits blockchain can provide to the healthcare industry. I really want to help speed up the adoption process but really don't know where and how to start. I'm now trying to learn Python and hopefully progress to learn more about blockchain but I feel that I'm now doing the process right. Any help/advice from anybody would be appreciated. :)
Very interesting! Thanks, for sharing!
i really like this content @ad! blockchain technology will change healthcare for the better,it will benefit so many industries.
looking forward to the future :)
Blockchain is the most exciting technology since the internet itsself! there are hundreds of use cases which are going to impact peoples lives only for the better!
Great article. It's good to keep educating people about the tech then hopefully it will be adopted faster! Most average fellows I chat to about blockchain don't understand it at all! Just like most of us don't understand the internet? haha
Keep posting man. wicked stuff. Also, this TED talk explains lots of other use cases for Blockchain. Health care is big, i think especially 'Maintaining Data Privacy and increasing Accuracy'. But check this video. It talks about prosperity in general which is cool.
check it out brother, see what you think!
Peace out :) @adsactly
@adsactly I think the simplification of healthcare overhead will be a huge driver of cost reductions. The key is to do so in a way that is secure and compliant with applicable law. How blockchainer tech fits in is anybody's guess (or billion $ idea!), But it would be great for the cryptoverse for sure
Vote up and Resteemed. "Reducing Complexity in Health Care" would be a dream come true. Cheers.
Wow this is great news for the health industry.
thanks for you sharing, very nice post
Thank you for this post... upvoted and resteemed..
great content right @orlena! are you in biotech?
Yes great.. no I'm not in biotech. I'm learning the platforms reading and getting all information I can.
Great post and totally true,blockchain technology will change healthcare for the better,it will benefit so many industries. thanks for sharing.
in the near future, the blockchain technology will take over the whole system of transaction, I do believe so, especialy healthcare industry for it is the main industry that need inovation throughout the advancement transaction. That is very useful information. Thanks for sharing @adsactly
Been in the medical field a long, long time. I can see where this would actually streamline medical histories for people. It is much needed. No more "waiting on records" which can take weeks to months and jeopardize continuity of care. And would eliminate the need to the "healthcare credit report" that is online at the moment, which kind of creeps me out a bit. Decentralize our personal info!!!!
Without a doubt Blockchain would transform Health-Care and it needs transformation.
Not the blockchain alone to fuel the future of all industry but blockchain is become a part of it if we see a bigger picture.
nice one
The virtual going to grow up!
Nice post
Nice Write up!
Blockchain does not eliminate the need for traditional security measures, but it does not rely on cybersecurity systems and firewalls to keep data safe and protected. Blockchain depends heavily on digital identity for security and authentication, which is difficult to fake in a decentralized system.
Great points. There is no doubt about it --- Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt many industries. But when it comes to the healthcare sector I don't really see the value of it other than storing patients files securely on the blockchain, but other than that. It's not really that disruptive. I could be wrong though. But just like you said, healthcare services are closely tied to insurance companies. However, a lot of insurance companies are only in it for profit and they're not really concerned about their clients healthcare. Sometimes the insurance doesn't even cover the costs of some healthcare services. Insurance companies are businesses, and businesses are there to make profit for themselves --- not for their clients. Once the blockchain tech can figure out how to make that tie more transparent and legit between patients and insurance companies then then we could say it's going to disrupt the healthcare sector massively.
Thanks
Blockchain will transform the whole world as we know it. This technology is as big as the internet was
There are several crypto currencies existing for health care, medical and gene research. I bet we will see more.
Have a look at PTOY for instance: https://patientory.com/
The transformation of using the money for payment si began! I can predict it will be a fantastic in four years from right now. I am able to understand how blockchain works. Thanks a lot.
Regard from Aceh, Indonesia.
This is great field to tackle and i hope it will be implemented.
Great post bro well done
Using Blockchain technology to centralise patient notes, records and transactions would increase efficiency dramatically. Transmitting information between health care professionals can be so slow and laborious. It will be interesting to see what role Smart Contracts will play as well... such massive potential!
So many uses for the Blockchain technology. Healthcare is in dire need of and overhaul. This just might be what it is needed.
Wow,
Excellent overview of the potential benefits of blockchain technology on the healthcare industry. This has opened my eyes to some new possibilities.
Great read!