How Blockchain Can Reinvent a Stale Healthcare System
Blockchain implementation in healthcare offers promising new distributed frameworks enabling streamlined and succinct delivery of confidential medical information across to all parties involved. The potential implications are vast but the most discussed positive consequences of its implementation are in the realms of privacy, destigmatization, and organization.
Blockchain is currently best put to use in these niches in the medical world and drives the most value when remediating redundant processes and fusing old-fashioned data silo structures. Built on permission-based Hyperledger Fabric, GFYTT does just that.
The GFY App enables users to control their health information in a single application, easily access healthcare services, and share or sell their information to cooperating medical institutions. Gen For You is not alone in attempting to revolutionize the medical system, Estonia implemented blockchain a decade ago accelerating their healthcare data system with innovative e-solutions.
95% of health information is ledger-based and 99% of prescription information is digital; these advancements were driven by Gaurdtime, a blockchain solution firm guiding healthcare organizations and governments during the blockchain implementation process. This organization was an essential part of the process for Estonia and its successful implementation has not gone unnoticed.
The United Arab Emirates has also signed a deal with a private healthcare provider to develop a similar blockchain solution. It will require a few brave early adopters with great results to entice further organizations to transcend antiquated data storage protocols.
Nationwide Interoperability
Nationwide in the US, health records are disjointed and siloed preventing seamless interoperability across multiple stakeholders. Information flows within predefined networks or a singular organization but does not reach a nation-wide database.
Healthcare organizations and governments could implement a nationwide blockchain transaction layer where medical information regarding each patient interaction lives. Information could be either universally available or only to specific individuals or organizations through blockchain private key mechanisms. This would enable access to an expansive big data set streamlining medical history referencing while building a trustless, collaborative future-minded ecosystem. The outcomes of implementing this protocol would be an efficient data pipeline, where big medical data sets are no longer the defining factor among major medical firms, but more so on value-added and transparent solutions.
Healthcare is an extremely complicated and entrenched ecosystem, especially in the US where there is competition where there should be transparency. This solution ultimately means less work for insurers and doctors offices and more efficient, palatable experiences for patients. Privacy concerns may arise as a byproduct of a fully transparent blockchain solution, as personal health information and disclosure may occur without patient authorization. Privacy, however, is also one of the key benefits to such implementation, especially for the ordinary citizen.
A Single Source Of Truth
Cloud data is an attractive target for cyber attackers. These attacks can and have resulted in annihilating consequences for individuals and healthcare organizations. Decentralization of this data can bolster privacy and decrease the likelihood of incurring crippling repercussions from such attacks.
Data breaches in healthcare are predicted to 3x in 2021 according to a report by Black Book Market Research. This same study revealed a sobering statistic that 90% of hospital employees and or healthcare workers were not given updated protocols or security guidelines when accessing sensitive information remotely.
The blockchains inherent characteristics of cryptographic private key access, proof of work protocol, and decentralized data storage would remediate some concerns surrounding the increased frequency of cyber-attacks and forge a trustless healthcare system. Blockchain technology offers myriad use-cases in healthcare; however, the technology and perceptions have not yet reached maturity and there are still well-founded concerns regarding an impetuous adoption.
Challenges, Considerations, and Endless Possibilities
Numerous technical and organizational economic challenges must be tackled before a healthcare blockchain can be fully integrated on a national scale. There are scalability concerns regarding transaction volumes and accessible computing power, decisions about which data will be stored to avoid network congestion, creation of palatable adoption incentives, unknown operating costs, and regulatory considerations.
Blockchain technology offers a unique protocol to drastically reduce network complexity, elicit trustless and seamless collaboration, and foster immutable information. The consensus among blockchain speculators in the healthcare space is that the holy grail of implementation would be fully-formed and portable medical records connecting disparate pieces of the puzzle in a patient’s health history.
It may be years before the level of mastery required to bring about such a solution on such a grand scale will be possible while maintaining privacy, regulatory, and security concerns; nor is it a panacea for every problem that plagues the industry. Similarly to cryptocurrency in the financial realm, blockchain is just one of many tools available to disrupt healthcare and revolutionize various aspects of its long-established system.
