Transforming Healthcare Sector with Blockchain.

How blockchain can help revolutionize the healthcare sector.

The unexpected emergence and quick but uncontrolled worldwide spread of the COVID-19 Virus show us some of the gaping holes in the existing healthcare surveillance systems, facilities, infrastructure, and the inability to handle public emergencies.

Problems with the Current Healthcare System

Unfortunately, there are a lot of issues that we can observe when it comes to the traditional healthcare system. Some of them are the following :

1. Outdated Healthcare Surveillance systems: Though organizations and governments are doing almost everything in their power to contain the spread of the Coronavirus, their process is struggling with the timely sharing of news & information with local and international health enforcement agencies like among different countries and between WHO. Preventing, and controlling diseases that have epidemic potential is the biggest challenge for us. For an instance, China’s current disease surveillance system is an updated version of a system that is five decades old.
2. Under-reporting: The coronavirus outbreak has raised concerns over the under-reporting due to the current infection and death statistics being speculated to be much higher than reported. This underreporting can be caused by many disruptions in the system, such as the lack of data transparency. Unfortunately, it is impossible to measure the seriousness of this outbreak without access to a secure, decentralized surveillance system.
3. Non-optimal data management: Experts who study the spread of disease, are facing the task of gathering, verifying, and cleaning data in an efficient manner. This results in a data management issue. Epidemiologists need high-quality data to model virus statistics. Using these models, they can provide government agencies with recommendations about the best methods to contain the disease. But it’s hard to retrieve the data and its integrity cannot be verified, thus of no use to epidemiologists.

How Blockchain will help in healthcare?

Here are some of the use cases that can be taken into consideration while we study the relationship between healthcare and Blockchain.

1. Surveillance solutions: Blockchain can be used for surveillance purposes. A blockchain-based healthcare surveillance system can be used to prevent and control similar future medical outbreaks. Consider an idea of a special surveillance system that would allow national health agencies and specialized experts to analyze the collected data and do necessary forecastings. The previous idea can be scaled up to a global surveillance system that could easily reach remote areas with poor connectivity. Local authorities can receive real-time data from surrounding areas, regardless of political or global barriers. WHO can also access the data and will be easy to track such global pandemics and view the situation in all the areas. Since we have this system based on the blockchain network it’s going to be completely decentralized and secure. Data remains secure and impossible to tamper or manipulate.
2. Medical Records management system: As mentioned above, one of the biggest problems in front of us is Non-optimal data management. In such a case, Blockchain will be able to securely manage public health records at the same time ensuring interoperability without compromising a patient’s privacy and security. Those records containing patients’ profile data, treatment details, and continuous progress reports can be efficiently managed using the management system. Blockchain will also make sure that data are archived and protected by any unauthorized access, but still keeping it available for the whole healthcare system. Another great application of this management will enable us to observe all the trends in real-time including all the details about confirmed cases of infected, death toll, recoveries, etc. Better connectivity and access to data all around the world has made this task to track the speed of disease very easy.
3. Medical Supply chain: Blockchain could also be used for tracking medical supply chains. Blockchain-based platforms could be used to enable the review and tracking of demand and supplies(logistics) of epidemic prevention materials such as vaccines, testing equipment, and other relief efforts. The supply chain is the biggest challenge for tackling COVID-19 since the experts suggest that it’s harder to supply medicinal supplies even after the vaccine is ready. Supply chains involve multiple parties. The flow of these supply chains moves from suppliers and recipients to warehousing and delivery logistics. Since it is based on blockchain, this entire process of recording and verification by each party is completely tamper-proof, while also allowing anyone to track the process. By securing good supply chains of these resources could have great advantages.

Hyperledger’s Project

Being part of Hyperledger SIG, our team is working on Scalable to Cyber-Physical Real-time Healthcare System. The program is in the initial stages, namely “Global Digital Corona Virus Harmful Mutation Control Program”.

This program implements a Global network of Replicable unit of Local-Native Hybrid Cloud-Servers for Clusters of Healthcare Centers with Selectively Installed Apps development Platform network for the development of Integrated Apps development with specifications for backend data transactions through Hyperledger Channels. These units are the Digital Cluster Control Units of Healthcare-centers (CCUH) for Locality based Corona Virus Control.

This program promotes Collaborative Partnership of many major IT players and Digital Health Research Institutions around the Globe to proceed with a Public-Private Partnership network with National, State and Local Health Departments of the Member States of UN to establish a Digital Healthcare Infrastructure and to deploy secured data channels between Healthcare-Centers (Inclusive of Hospitals, Nursing Homes & Clinics) and WHO through UNTIL, operated by integrated groups of Apps, to have Global Digital Control of Corona Virus, in Realtime.

It is targeted for the future that at least one of the Healthcare Centers in a cluster may be installed with the devices that evolve from, Duel-wavelength Three-dimensional Wave-bundle Sensing Resonance (DTWSR) Spectroscopy technology, to provide precision in Diagnosis and Treatment for the patients infected with Harmful mutants of Corona Virus of the future.

As this program generates Unique Medical Record for CoV infected patients, this program is scalable and sustainable with the development of Apps to build a Cyber-Physical Real-time Healthcare system (Healthnet System) on this platform.

Outcomes

1. Uncorrupted Realtime data to Research Institutions around the Globe, those working on molecular level CoV preventive measures, and their Regulatory control, so that these preventive measures are much more economical and safe to the public, as these researchers are more collaborative and open.
2. Effective and specific feedback guidelines by WHO up to Healthcare centres in specific clusters in specific localities. Thus, the public from all sectors receives equal attention and Healthcare guidance by WHO, with comparative analysis benefits.
3. Updatable, Corona Virus Infectivity Percentage Digital Certification (CIPDC) in Smart Card to individuals, that is applicable to work/study places for monitoring Public Health at their domain. This conserves the Global economy with a safe ecosystem for education/occupation and travel to all sectors.
4. Incorporated indirect Radiation Pollution control measures up to Local level, contributes Sustainable Development Goals to Humankind by this program.

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