Blockchain: The Much Needed Panacea for Healthcare

Although healthcare industry is bombarded with increasing technological advancements from telemedicine, health information exchange platforms, wearable measurement devices to IoT enabled medical equipment; it, however, is not free of challenges.

One of the most significant challenges facing the industry is the security of the critical health data. As health records become increasingly digitalized, one of the biggest concerns for health entity is to ensure the security of data from the pernicious cyber attacks. Another related issue, being that of EMRs operating as siloed systems, preventing health providers or the patients to have access to a holistic record of medical histories. However, it just doesn’t end here. One of the more serious, and yet unresolved issues in healthcare have been that concerning the transparency of healthcare information exchange and accountability in healthcare decisions.

With such as the state of present-day healthcare, blockchain technology has indeed come to offer a solution of great hope. As blockchain offers a decentralized operating mechanism, it has come to open up a secure, transparent, and untampered chain of transactions between the patients and providers, distilling into a number of benefits. First, as blockchain facilitates an instant transaction between the concerned parties involved, it would play a great role in getting the patients better engaged and yet protect the privacy of the patients. Second, as blockchain stands for highly encrypted transactions which are inerasable, it would ensure that the critical data is not just secure but is also free from any amendments. Third, it would help in instilling accountability amongst the physicians, as nothing can escape the eye of records. Last but not the least, blockchain provides a straightforward and easy solution to collect and aggregate longitudinal patient records, that would contribute toward more informed health decisions.