Health pain points and how does blockchain resolve each?

Looking towards healthcare from a distance, you’ll get satisfied and astonished by this giant leap forward that wouldn’t have been possible without the miracles technology brings to us daily. However, come a bit closer, and you’ll find a plagued health system. It’s full of qualified professionals and great technologies, yet missing out on critical issues that turn into vulnerabilities, risking the entire system.

dHealth tackles problems in the healthcare industry with the noble purpose of developing better and more personalized treatment plans, preparing for any future public health crisis, and improving efficiency to alleviate the ever-rising treatment costs.

So how can we build a sustainable healthcare system that does not cost more every year while delivering fewer and fewer benefits for people?

The answer is obvious: Blockchain.

Blockchain technology is much more than what its initial application as a component of the cryptocurrency bitcoin would imply. It is a breakthrough that has the potential to alter the way we live today entirely. Its decentralized database infrastructure, unprecedented data security, and integrity standards make it worth the shot in every industry, especially healthcare.

How does blockchain solve health pain points?

Lack of trust

The health system relies on intermediaries to manage transactions, costs, and operations between health providers and patients. Payers reroute the money they collect on the people’s side to distribute it to healthcare providers on the other side after deducting profit and administrative costs. There needs to be more transparency so people can trust the cost and efficiency of the provider’s treatment. The healthcare system still depends on the stakeholders’ trust in each other. How should we, as end users, know who to trust?

A blockchain solution will disintermediate the trust where we no longer need a third party. Digital contracts, in combination with liquidity pools and digital payments, will replace them. All participants on the trustless network will have access to the distributed ledger, where they trust the integrity of all transactions and maintain secure exchanges without brokered complex trust.

Increasing costs and fees

Healthcare costs are on the rise. While some patients benefit from highly personalized medicine, most have no access to proper healthcare. There is an increased out-of-pocket cost for individuals who want to maintain access to high-quality healthcare. All healthcare costs are out of pocket in countries with no insurance coverage. Reasons for the high fees include wrong incentives, where healthcare providers get paid for quantity but not quality. There needs to be more digitalization and efficient processes. There are expensive innovations, an aging population with frequent health problems, and a deficit of transparency and competition on the healthcare provider side.

A blockchain solution creates a decentralized, trustless network with no reliance on intermediaries. You’ll find a fair incentives system that can benefit all stakeholders. There’ll be reduced transaction costs, especially since payments are digital and records are up-to-date and real-time processed, making the entire system efficient.

Inconsistent rules

Some inconsistent permissions and rules inhibit health organizations from accessing patient data promptly. Sometimes, it becomes stressful and inefficient when there’s ambiguity around decision-making and who is responsible for what.

A blockchain solution relies on smart contracts, computer software that self-executes when we meet certain conditions. A smart contract automates an agreement’s execution so that all participants on the network ensure the integrity of the outcome without involvement or time loss from intermediaries. Blockchain builds a consistent, rule-based approach for accessing patient data and consenting to share it on a case-by-case basis.

Health data issues

Health data is the most valuable asset in healthcare. Due to the pandemic and a hunger for personal data collection from Big Tech players and malicious actors, we have learned an essential thing. The current digital infrastructure cannot keep up with the growing demand for health data privacy.

Different standards

Data standards vary from one hospital or server to another, creating an interoperability issue between different healthcare systems. Health data currently sits in silos in doctors’ offices, care centers, or in the grip of third parties. The growing number of siloes results in a lack of interoperability and difficulties in exchanging health data.

A blockchain solution offers real-time sharing of data across all parties on the network. Healthcare information technology must access, share, and interpret data cohesively to provide optimal care. Blockchain allows the breaking of electronic health data silos. It enables data sharing across systems as data infrastructures operate on the same layer.

Limited access

Data custodianship is a problem in this highly fragmented industry. Currently, most healthcare data is centralized in government and corporate-controlled digital infrastructures. People can’t manage their health data, and they’re in the dark about its fate, who is using their data, and what profits are getting gained on their behalves.

A blockchain solution offers secure, distributed access to patient health data across the decentralized ledger. With a growing need for privacy and sovereignty, the ability to consent to data sharing in a privacy-preserving manner will be critical for enterprises that want to cater to the patients and consumers of tomorrow. Empowering patients to take custody of their data will change the system because it allows for many use cases. Data custody comes with a regulatory burden, which a decentralized infrastructure can reduce by enabling the patient to assume data sovereignty and consent to data utility.

dHealth: The future of decentralized healthcare

The time is ripe for moving to a global healthcare network where one chooses coverage and treatment independently of residency. We deserve to live in a world where we own our health data, pay less to access proper healthcare, and trust our health systems. dHealth offers us that with its decentralized, people-centric blockchain solution!

dHealth is a layer-1 protocol built for the healthcare industry. We’re tokenising the access and exchange of valuable health data by bridging the gap between corporations in the Web 2 world with a decentralised Medverse in the Web 3 world.
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