With the advent of technology and growing demand for the businesses, there are many changes taking place in the way businesses are operated. When it is about healthcare industry, it has to embrace technology to smoothen the healthcare operations. The quality healthcare services can be offered when it is integrated with technology. This benefits both the patients and the doctors. The healthcare system has become totally patient centric by offering cost-effective healthcare facilities to the patients. 

Today, the patient data is scattered in different systems as a result of which the crucial information about the patient is not so easy to access by the doctors when there is a dire need of it. It has become a big challenge to share the health records of the patients with the other doctors. Though, there are laptops and computers available, but still it has become a big hurdle to analyze, exchange and secure the data. There is a need for using advanced solve care technology that is safe, secure and interoperable. One such technology that is available in the blockchain technology. This maintains the ledger free from corruption of the health records and let the patients and healthcare providers to manage the medical records transparently. 

Quick access to the medical data: Managing the data of the patients is the first and foremost responsible of a hospital. It has become a big challenge for the healthcare providers to have access to the patient’s information without getting in touch with their previous healthcare providers. The whole process of gathering the previous records of the patient has become time consuming and this sometimes is leading to give wrong treatment to the patient. 

But blockchain solves the problem by providing an accessible and transparent view of the medical history. For instance, there is an app named “MedRec” built on Ethereum, which stores patient’s information in a decentralized way and make it possible for both patients and doctors to access the health records.

Data in the healthcare data is generating via different technologies like IoT, ML and AI, which can be utilized for various purposes, including drug development, clinical trials and disease prevention and cure. But storing such data in a centralized database could hinder the patient’s privacy.

Maintaining such data in the blockchain could bring trust in the medical research process, thereby securing the patient’s health records.

For instance, if a medical research company wants to research on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), the smart contracts built for this purpose would only allow companies to access crucial data like disease type, most-effected city, gender and age group while keeping the personal records hidden.

Implementing blockchain in the pharma supply chain can reduce the supply of counterfeit drugs to the patients and healthcare organizations. A blockchain based platform, TraceRx is transforming the way the drugs are distributed.

The platform allows the UNO to track and trace the free drugs’ distribution and identify losses and theft cases if any. Every stakeholder in the shipment process digitally signs the transaction which is stored on the blockchain, making it transparent and secure. With real-time transparency and time-stamped records, the solution ensures that already issued batch of medicine is not transferred to the stores and patients.

With Hurrican Maria relief efforts as the reference, the Department of Defense (DD) in collaboration with Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has experimented with the blockchain’s potential for relief efforts.

Presently, DLA uses centrally managed systems for tracking logistics, split between different agencies. As a result, it becomes complicated to manage relief activities efficiently.

Introducing blockchain to relief services would enable data to be tracked through the same ledger, thereby offering a live feed of various agencies’ relief efforts. It will ensure that the relief services are provided on time and save lives and money.