Blockchain Technology – Answer to Modern Healthcare Needs

Blockchain and its application extends beyond financial transactions and cryptocurrency. Originally, blockchain technology was developed as a decentralized system to record transactions that were stored and maintained across a peer-to-peer network of computers. This technology was used mainly for cryptocurrency, but has now evolved as a cutting-edge data-security medium for the healthcare sector. Given that blockchain is a public ledger that is secure and immutable, it has become the perfect paperless solution within healthcare.

In a short period of time, blockchain technology has taken the medical world by a storm. Healthcare has always been a very centralized industry holding enormous amounts of patient data (medical history, billing information, insurance data, etc.), bringing prominent issues such as identity thefts, financial data breaches, spamming, and data misuse to the forefront. This, coupled with the fact that patients had little control over their own data, increased the need and urgency for secure, accessible, and verifiable data.

The emergence of blockchain has effectively fixed this gap, acting as a security blanket for all health-data and limiting financial breaches. A part from data security, blockchain is also addressing several supply-chain impediments within the healthcare industry via fraud detection capabilities and counterfeit product identification.

Blockchain is being implemented in the healthcare industry in the following areas:

• Medical Data Management
• Medical Claims, billings and insurance claims
• Medical research
• Data security
• Reduced operational (IT, support function, etc.) costs
• Pharma supply chain security
• Identification of counterfeit products
• Data based mHealth apps

Shaping the Future of Healthcare with Blockchain

Health-based information exchange that utilizes blockchain and AI can unlock the true value of interoperability. It is evident that blockchain has immense potential across industries, especially within healthcare. Capitalizing on this technology in an optimal way - the way many mHealth apps (such as Wanngi, Playpal, Sweatcoin, HealthyWage) are - can help connect fragmented systems that, in conglomeration, generate meaningful health-insights.