Introduction
It seems decades have passed while the world’s healthcare system has been degrading. The global healthcare system has never been more difficult for healthcare professionals, practitioners, and patients due to bed shortages, lengthy waiting lists, rising expenses, and worldwide pandemics. In this blog post we will understand how blockchain is helping the healthcare technology.
The global healthcare business is on the verge of collapse, according to Deloitte’s 2022 Global Health Care Outlook. The COVID-19 pandemic has worn out medical personnel, overburdened institutions, adversely affected and further marginalized sizable population segments, and reduced demand for and access to non-COVID-19-related medical care.
In other words, the epidemic has worsened an already failing healthcare system. This sector has been plagued by years of inefficiencies, funding reductions, failed reformations, and over-centralization. However, this is fixable.
Extreme measures must be taken to ensure that the global healthcare system does not completely fail. The adoption of blockchain technology will enable a decentralized and dispersed setting that, in the end, benefits and safeguards everyone, as a healthy healthcare system ought to.
What is a Blockchain?
The most well-known use of blockchain technology is preserving a secure and decentralized record of transactions in virtual currency (cryptocurrency) systems like Bitcoin. The innovation of a blockchain is that it fosters confidence without the necessity for a reliable third party by ensuring the fidelity and security of a record of data.
How the data is organized in a blockchain differs significantly from how it is typically organized. In a blockchain, data is gathered in groups called blocks that each include data sets.
Improving Communication and Efficiency
Global healthcare significantly underutilizes blockchain technologies. For all parties involved in the healthcare industry, it can provide an efficient, transparent, safe, and effective data and information communication method. It provides the chance to scale back or do away with the pre-authorization process in the healthcare industry through tokenization and the usage of smart contracts.
When communicating with different parties, blockchain-based solutions for health documentation provide secure encryption methods that protect the integrity of users’ personal information. Pre-authorization will be drastically reduced by tokenization, smart contracts, and the encryption methods used in blockchain network transactions, allowing patients to receive the necessary and informed care more quickly.
When previously relying on the patient or files physically delivered or emailed from many sources, such as local doctors, labs, etc., the healthcare professional can get the pertinent information promptly.
Tokenization can assist and enhance communication between the patient and the healthcare practitioner, facilitating more effective contact and communication between insurance companies and healthcare providers.
Putting the Patient First
Introducing a decentralized platform into the world’s healthcare system will assist the patient in various ways. One benefit of healthcare technology is that it will enable patients to own their medical records rather than the healthcare provider. Decentralization will also free patients from restrictions and allow them to give their medical records to any doctor, anywhere in the world, making healthcare more accessible to all.
As they contact various international healthcare professionals and providers along their healthcare journey, patients can supply and receive information swiftly and efficiently thanks to the tokenization of personal information. To ensure that information is promptly retrieved and preserved for every usage, essential information, including medical history, insurance information, and personal information, will be delivered through a platform.
Patients can guarantee that the data maintained on them is accurate and correct by giving them access to their medical records. In research to examine the accuracy of medical records, it was discovered that only 18% of the text in progress notes would be manually entered by healthcare providers, leaving 46% to be copied and 36% to be imported. This creates a sizable opportunity for error and stale information.
Supporting Outpatient Services
Outside of hospitals, patients are treated by various healthcare professionals, including their general practitioner (GP), a primary care facility, and specialists like dentists and physiotherapists.
A system that ensures everyone is aware of visits, prescriptions, and medication might be difficult to implement because there is so much to track and manage, especially when providers are a part of many international healthcare networks.
With blockchain-based medical records, any physician may update prescription data in real-time, improving information flow and lowering the possibility of mistakes and drug interactions.
To offer healthcare professionals and pharmacists all the information they require to deliver the appropriate care and advice, patients can submit information on their over-the-counter medications or homeopathic remedies. From the viewpoint of the user, this implies the existence of a central, single-access repository of data that is securely held and kept throughout a decentralized blockchain.
Conclusion
Blockchain technology has the potential to save money, advance investments in vital resources, and assist the growth of the global healthcare sector. With so much on the line, it is implausible to believe that dysfunctional, highly bureaucratic, and the ineffective healthcare system can last. It’s time for patients, professionals, and executives to adopt the system-based innovations and technologies at our disposal.
Hi, I’m the Founder and Developer of Paramedics World, a blog truly devoted to Paramedics. I am a Medical Lab Tech, a Web Developer and Bibliophiliac. My greatest hobby is to teach and motivate other peoples to do whatever they wanna do in life.