How is India’s Healthcare Sector Adopting Blockchain
India, a nation with a population over 1.3 billion with geographical, cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic diversities undoubtedly needs a healthcare system where health data of each citizen can be safely stored and readily accessed. Indian healthcare needs a robust secure system to operate at such a large and diverse scale.
Blockchain technology has demonstrated its ability to be an efficient solution. Estonia, for example is one such nation which has transferred all healthcare services data on the revolutionary technology, blockchain.
Blockchain is decentralized distributed ledger where each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data.This makes the blockchain ecosystem incorruptible, secure and both time and cost efficient.
In India, maladaptive practices in diagnosis and medication due to lack of knowledge on patient history is one of the leading causes of death.
India is striving to achieve United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of providing Universal Healthcare (UHC) by 2030. For a sustainable UHC, India needs a technology solution which can make patient data readily accessible at the time of emergency, reduce frauds on insurance claims, eradicate drug piracy and incorporate robust accountability in the system. “Ayushman Bharat Yojana”, a forward looking initiative taken by Indian government to offer National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) to demonstrate its commitment to achieve UHC by 2030. Though a step in the right direction, NHPS implementation would be facing multiple challenges pertaining to funding allocation, service delivery, patient selection, and sustainability.
Central to the ambitious initiative lies incorporating a technology which can cater the demands at this scale. Blockchain technology is being looked at to optimise and increase the efficiency of the already implemented Electronic Health Record. There is need for standardization and interoperability of data in the healthcare industry. Currently, the EHR systems across India use different information models and within that, various institutions use different sets of codes and vocabularies, thus making it hard to achieve interoperability. Another main challenge which the Indian Healthcare system faces is the identification of patients across different EHR systems. Different combinations of local identifier and photo identification are used in different locations, making the entire process inefficient.
On the blockchain ecosystem, every patient will have a unique identity over the blockchain network and his clinical data generated at various stages will be stored with his unique identity as EHR digital asset on the blockchain network. This immutable data can be accessed by the necessary parties involved.
Healthcare domain will see considerable and beneficial impact once Blockchain based systems are adopted across the Patient and healthcare provider ecosystem.
Auxledger, a product by Auxesis Group is one of the world’s leading blockchain company with an aim to form a decentralized internet of tomorrow. Auxledger is closely working with various top level Indian organizations and state governments to enable blockchain in mainstream enterprise adoption. You can read more on auxledger blockchain solutions, here.
The advantages of incorporating blockchain technology in EHR has various benefits. Blockchain will contain references to the EHR data, while Smart Contracts will define and enforce access rules to EHR content. This will ensure that only authorized persons/entities access the EHR data.
An integrated and synchronized EHR system will put power in Government’s hand to efficiently and accurately involve the needed citizens in state-sponsored schemes.
The EHR will be a permission shared asset across the EHR network healthcare providers/hospitals improving the accuracy of diagnosis and treatment.
The endless list of advantages continue but it is important to note that Blockchain is not a panacea for healthcare and there is yet a lot of complexities which needs to be addressed before we realise a blockchain enabled healthcare system.
Blockchain needs high computing power to keep the transaction data encrypted. For this reason, multiple servers are used across different geographic locations. India, an energy deficit country surely needs a more energy efficient blockchain.
Secondly, the limited customizability to fit industry demands is preventing blockchain implementation in mainstream healthcare . Auxledger, envisions to address this concern. You can read the auxledger whitepaper, here.
The third challenge is the lack of insights on the product life cycle. Blockchain technology owing to its nascency is yet to give us a detailed insight on its scalability and life cycle.
In conclusion, the ambitious dream of a blockchain enabled Healthcare, though difficult, is very much achievable. The time is ripe for India to implement the world’s largest blockchain healthcare network.
