Can the Blockchain Technology Reduce Cost in Healthcare Delivery?

Health data are very sensitive; any breach in a patient’s health record is a threat to his life. Extend this to the thousands of health records that a single medical center has. You know what a data breach of this scale can do.

Health centers spend millions of dollars in securing their data from attacks. In 2020, organizations worldwide are expected to spend $101.6 billion on cyber security. The healthcare spending on cyber security is expected to exceed $65 billion in 5 years. Despite these huge investments in security, the healthcare industry suffers the highest damage in data breach. A whopping $380 per medical record compromised. This is 2.5 times the global average when compared to other industries. This highly increases the cost of running a healthcare center, which in turn reflects on how much patients pay for healthcare services.

The scattered nature of health records across the thousands of databases of health centers means that there is no single source of truth on a patient’s health condition. Doctors and healthcare givers cannot share health records across different institutions.

3 months ago, Mr. Jones visited the hospital in his city for a complaint. Series of tests and procedures were carried out, he was treated, and was given drug prescriptions. Just last week, he went to a new city for business. While the business lasted, he felt a heavy throbbing in his head, and went to the hospital. This was a hospital he had not visited before. All the required medical tests and procedures were also carried out, he was treated and given medications. Guess what, all the tests carried out in the new hospital were carried out in his 3 months ago visit to the hospital in his town.

Imagine how cheap the new medical visit would have been if the new hospital could easily get access to his health records from the first hospital. The reduction in cost would have been in high percentages of up to 50 %.

Sharing his medical history with the new hospital would have eliminated all the recurrent tests and procedures that were carried out in the first hospital, and eliminated the cost as well. He would easily have done this if there was an efficient, reliable and safe platform in place to help patients and institutions collaborate and share data.

Now the burden of cost is borne by

• The hospital in spending to secure their data from breaches
• And the patient in spending to carry out recurrent tests and procedures that must have be done initially.

Lack of data sharing and collaboration are the causes of this increase in costs.

The decentralized and secure nature of the blockchain network can be used to eliminate this.

Want to learn more about the features of the blockchain technology, read this article.

Imagine a healthcare data platform built on the blockchain network. Data stored on this decentralized system will be fully secure and safe from attack. Any unauthorized attempt to access or change the data will require a whole lot of computing power that it becomes impossible. This an escape for the millions spent in cyber security.

Also, information on the network can be easily accessed anywhere and anytime with the consent of the patient. With this, patients’ health history can be shared and accessed securely and easily anywhere. This will eliminate the cost in recurring tests, procedures and avoid the proliferation of patients’ health data.

At Cura Network, we’re building a global decentralized healthcare system that will reduce the cost of data security and healthcare delivery. Our platform will power a plethora of services, and serve as a single source of truth for health data on patients that can be accessed, updated and used by anyone at anytime and anywhere with the consent of the patient.

Cura Network will serve healthcare providers with a safe and secure storage for health data. Patients will have control of their health records and evade the recurrent costs in healthcare treatment that they decry.