How Is Blockchain Disrupting The Healthcare Arena?

By Harsimran Kaur
The global digital healthcare market was valued at $96.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to increase by 15.1% CAGR from 2021 to 2028.

As the demand for quality healthcare reaches the sky’s limit, escalating hospital fees, disease complexity, and the risk of data breaching pose significant challenges. What healthcare needs right now is a drive for greater innovation and efficiency, and blockchain is becoming the savior for the same by simplifying data sharing securely in the disintegrated healthcare arena. The blockchain market in healthcare was valued at USD 2.12 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 3.49 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 8.7% during the forecast period, 2021 - 2026. Let’s look at how blockchain is disrupting the healthcare arena.

The Scope of Blockchain in the Healthcare Market

Playing an aggressive role in tracking and accessing the data, Blockchain also looks into managing identities for authentication while providing effective settlement services. It has also helped improve the processes so that digitizing and sharing medical records is enhanced securely.

One doesn't require any high-level training to start using blockchain technology. Nowadays, blockchain technology in the healthcare arena works with software as a service, making it easy to deploy. Multiple aspects set blockchain technology apart from the rest. Read below to find them.

Increased Traceability

The health care domain is loaded with many counterfeiters, which are badly influencing patient's safety and ruining the pharmaceutical market. On the contrary, the market lacks proper tools for the smooth tracking of drugs from the manufacturing sector to the patients.

Blockchain implementation in the healthcare industry would be considered an integrated solution that provides increased traceability for drugs while reducing possibilities for negative circulation of fraudulent ones. Along with this, Blockchain also contributes to increasing the authenticity and verified supply of drugs.

Not just this, but Blockchain is helpful in easy tracking of medical reports or tests while ensuring the delivery of patient's reports in an estimated time. Blockchain successfully paves the way for easy tracking to ensure high-quality supplies every time.

Accurate Patient Data and Medical Record Management

With Blockchain's efficient usage in healthcare, accurate data can be received at every stage. Furthermore, to ensure all the medical records are on point, Blockchain can lend its immutability to the task. In reality, Blockchain doesn't allow you to alter the information stored there. Still, if a systematic auditing procedure is put up in the right place, every document can conveniently stay intact.

Thus, with Blockchain's efficient use in the healthcare domain, there will be no scope for any discrepancy.

Higher Security

Cybercrimes are currently increasing in every field, even in the healthcare sector, which requires utmost security to keep all documents safe. Through Blockchain, healthcare systems can constructively boost their security processes and eliminate any cyber-attack threats.

This ensures that a criminal can not hack into your system and access all the important information. This is also considered one of the most productive features of Blockchain. Moreover, as the technology does not comprise a central failure point, it ensures that all the necessary information remains safe and secure regardless of your location at the time of a natural disaster.

Exchange of Tokens

Through Blockchain's effective technology systems, virtual currencies can be used/traded between multiple parties. With the easy exchange of tokens taking place through Blockchain, it can be perceived that it is an appropriate option to choose. Moreover, virtual currencies can peg into flat currencies helping in smooth and equivalent values added to your accounts, especially in the healthcare sector, where its requirement is high.

Secure Records Digitally

One of the troublesome aspects of going into the hospitals is their paperwork and formalities to fill up each time you step in. With Blockchain entering the healthcare domain, a lot of things tend to turn around.

Blockchain technology offers to secure health records digitally, which enables you to access them anytime easily. Blockchain helps you manage all your important documents safely while opting for a digital portal, where they all stay intact. Moreover, there are a lot of applications available in Blockchain to create a hub for the patient. This way, the patient can easily upload all their needed information, making it visible to all physicians— mitigating the possibility of misplacing these papers.

Offers Interiobility

Blockchain's features are not just limited to the ones mentioned above. It also offers interiority, which helps in easy connectivity with various parties while being in the same industry. If you wish to connect with distinct markets such as health insurance providers, hospitals or even distributors— all these integrations can be done under Blockchain.

Reasonable Costs

Blockchain technology is an efficient one capable of handling high surge traffic within a short period, even with low maintenance. Additionally, its low handling costs are even lesser than the traditional legacy systems. Blockchain is strong enough to efficiently disrupt the healthcare domain while offering cost-effective solutions on the way.

What’s More?

Blockchain allows you to create a well-structured hub to network with required parties in a much shorter period. For example, if a patient is in urgent need of health insurance, he can easily receive it by easily communicating through the Blockchain's Interiobility hub. Blockchain also benefits in easy verification of legal documents while being within the same domain itself.

Through Blockchain's efficient and result-oriented solutions, all the doctors, manufacturers, and distributors can act quicker with assured and trusted information.

Though Blockchain is the perfect solution to keep your hands on, it is not that easy as it seems. Blockchain being such an efficient technology has certain drawbacks. Companies that are willing to build blockchain healthcare systems can, at times, stop due to fewer production requirements. Adding on to that, innovation teams keep on proving their concepts but are quite hesitant to dive into its usage fully. While these issues persist, blockchain technology has sufficiently gained the trust of many for it to be accepted as a revolutionary change soon!

Blockchain is gradually taking over all the healthcare industries. It can be considered a technology that's changing the overall hierarchy of healthcare by providing patients with authority and trusted deliverables. While it has only been experienced till the surface level, Blockchain still has a long way to go!