7 ways blockchain will revolutionize the healthcare industry
2019 is a tipping point for the healthcare industry. According to Deloitte’s latest report on Global Healthcare Outlook, the entire industry of healthcare is moving towards ‘smart’ healthcare. Smart healthcare includes
- Appropriate and timely treatments
- Doctors use technology to accurately diagnose and treat illnesses
- Data is uniformly available to all stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem
- Patient data is stored in one ubiquitous record
- Patients are actively involved in their treatment plan
- Reduction of cost to make it more easily accessible
The report also projects the global healthcare spend to grow at an annual rate of 4.1% in the period 2017–2021.
The latest study on the healthcare industry by Frost & Sullivan reports that,
- Digital health investments crossed $6.5 billion in 2017, up 109% from the previous year
- Global healthcare cloud computing market revenue for providers is expected to cross the $5 billion mark by 2018, growing ~24% over 2017–2022
Global warming, pollution, sedentary lifestyles, unhealthy diets, and rising obesity levels are fueling an increase in chronic diseases — most prominently, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes — even in developing markets. China and India have the largest number of diabetes sufferers in the world, at around 114 million and 69 million, respectively. Globally, the number is expected to rise from the current 415 million to 642 million by 2040.
However, the current healthcare industry is a complex system of interconnected entities, making it extremely difficult to provide timely, cost effective and personalized treatment plans.
To better understand just how complex the current healthcare system is, have a look at the exhibit below.
All this points to one main factor — The need for a more efficient and organized healthcare system. The key enablers to focus on are:
1. Adoption of new digital and cognitive technologies on a wide scale
According to an estimate from the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, recording, storing and handling data in the existing system can be a daunting task. “The commercial health care industry spends at least $2.1 billion a year collecting and maintaining provider data.”
Because of disparate and poor quality of data, health care is often the last of the sectors to leverage data analytics. However, we are in the era of outcome based, patient-centric approach of providing healthcare solutions, and this approach cannot be bereft of advanced technology.
In coming years, technologies such as blockchain will disrupt systems and processes defined the healthcare industry for a long time.
2. Need for better and more efficient regulations
Growing health care market complexity leads to regulatory discrepancies and increases the need for better risk management. Globally, the average total cost of a healthcare data breach to an organization reached USD $3.62 million per incident in 2017.
The Rising Need for Blockchain as a Solution
With the demand for healthcare on the rise, patient centricity, integrated care delivery, and focus on member health management call for the need of highly optimum information technology that can completely eliminate middlemen.
Blockchain serves as a solution to most of these challenges. Since it follows a decentralized nature, blockchain doesn’t require multiple levels of authentication and, at the same time, gives complete, on-demand access to relevant, up to date information. It is a robust technology that can drive healthcare industry performance, improve quality of care and lower the cost of delivery.
Let’s now look at 7 ways in which blockchain has helped solve some of the problems faced by healthcare
1. Decentralization of data
Healthcare data is usually localized and not distributed, which results in all healthcare stakeholders having a different version of the patient’s record stored in multiple formats.
The decentralization used by blockchain will allow every medical stakeholder in the ecosystem to have access to a single point of truth. This saves the hassle of maintaining multiple records for one patient, and it also expedites the ease of access and use.
The decentralized format in a blockchain will also ensure the secure recording and sharing of information, anchoring data to the shared blockchain. This method involves generating a proof of data integrity. Using this proof, any user can verify the data without the need to rely on third-parties. This method allows users to:
- Verify PHI integrity
- Perform unchangeable medical audits
- Prove the integrity of clinical research results
- Reduce audit expenses and ensure regulatory compliance
- Ensure data safety
HIPAA mandates safe methods of communication between those who deal with PHI stored in electronic form. That is why data encryption plays a crucial role in ensuring data privacy and safety.
2. Secure and fast access with real-time updates
Traditionally, a clinician would only have records of the data given to them by the patient at the time of visit. The doctor will have no further insight into the lifestyle of the patient, or what they do outside of the medical facility.
With blockchain coupled with IoT, all the stakeholders in the medical ecosystem will get real-time updates about the patient’s health. Parameters such as heart rate, bp are constantly measured, and any anomaly can immediately be diagnosed. By eliminating third-party applications or processes, a huge amount of time is saved on data access.
3. Reducing geographic barriers
One of the major challenges faced by the healthcare industry is system interoperability. Transmitting patient data across boundaries and geographies whilst maintaining its security and integrity have been issues of concern.
With the decentralized format of blockchain, system interoperability becomes convenient and efficient through standardized global EHR systems. A patient can now travel and avail medical help from anywhere in the world, knowing that he can access his medical data via the internet.
4. Reducing the cost of medical care
Every healthcare institution knows that the only way it can survive is by offering best in class service coupled with low costs.
Both public and private health systems are facing revenue headwinds and decreasing margins for years. Rising labor costs, infrastructure, funding limitations and technology advancements force the medical institutions to pass this cost on to the patient. Healthcare has become unimaginably unaffordable worldwide.
With blockchain, most of the middlemen can be eliminated from the system completely. This results in better margins for the hospitals. For the patients, with faster transactions and real time access to patient data, costs can be brought down significantly.
5. Develop patient-centric models with focus on delivering value and personalized care
In the current scenario, a patient has little to no access to his medical information. Most of the information is stored in a haphazard manner in multiple electronic devices that are not congruent with each other. Due to the lack of holistic information, personalization of treatment is often a tedious ordeal.
Blockchain allows for a high degree of patient-centricity where all the stakeholders in the ecosystem have access to the same, uniform information. The patient is also incentivized through tokens to participate in the information sharing process.
This not only results in reduced cost, but also in better and personalized treatment plans for the patient based on his records.
According to a survey conducted by Deloitte, customers report that their first priority in healthcare is personalized care from their providers.
6. Secure and controlled access to patient data
As mentioned earlier, data breach is one of the biggest concerns faced by the healthcare industry today. Since the data is stored on local devices, it is susceptible to easy hacks and infidelity. Also, anyone with access to the system can tamper with the data.
Blockchain technology uses smart contracts (a smart contract is a piece of software that stores rules for negotiating the terms of an agreement, automatically verifies fulfillment, and then executes the agreed terms) for creating a rule based accessing mechanism of the data.
Also, although each participating entity has access to the ledger, only patient authorized parties can view this patient data. This ensures that the data cannot be accessed by entities that have nothing to do with it.
7. Proactive involvement of both- patients and care providers for more holistic treatment
Currently, since patients are not in control of their data, they are unable provide accurate, well-rounded information about their medical history to stakeholders like wellness organizations, insurance companies and other healthcare organizations. Additionally, lifestyle information of the patient is not readily available to clinicians and other medical stakeholders to provide a holistic and personalized treatment plan.
Blockchain can solve this problem by incentivizing patients to share information through tokenization. When a patient participates in this system, he is awarded a redeemable token. With this system, healthcare companies will be able to offer a more personalized treatment plan, rather that offer a one-size-fits-all solution to everyone.
Also, with the integration of wearable IoT devices and blockchain, real-time data can be made available to participating entities on a continuous basis. This helps in early diagnosis and prevention of potentially life threatening ailments.
Conclusion
Blockchain technology has a huge potential to completely revolutionize the healthcare industry. It is an effective solution that can help prevent data breaches in the healthcare industry. It is a secure and reliable method of recording, storing, and sharing sensitive data. Healthcare organizations will reap huge benefits from this technology, provided they remain HIPAA compliant with this method of trustworthy digital protection.
According to a survey by the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council, currently only .025% of global GDP (around $20 billion) is held in the Blockchain. However, the research also suggests this will increase significantly in the next decade as healthcare companies see technology as a way to reduce costs and speed up settlements.
References:
