Understanding Blockchain and its Role in Healthcare Innovation (Part 1)
Blockchain has recently become synonymous with cryptocurrency, but its applications go far beyond financial transactions. Companies in every industry are just now beginning to understand how to apply blockchain-based solutions to solve business problems. In the healthcare industry there are significant issues that blockchain can address, including interoperability, privacy, and supply chain traceability. Another major challenge is that proprietary, electronic health record systems — from hundreds of different vendors — routinely don’t talk to each other. And in the U.S. alone, there were 1,750 incidents of drug counterfeiting in 2018.
Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain. Each block in the chain contains a number of transactions, and every time a new transaction occurs on the blockchain, a record of that transaction is added to every participant’s ledger. This means if one block in one chain was changed, it would be immediately apparent it had been tampered with. If hackers wanted to corrupt a blockchain system, they would have to change every block in the chain, across all of the distributed versions of the chain. The decentralised database managed by multiple participants is known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).
As one example, in 2016, the Estonian government was looking for new and innovative ways to secure the health records for its 1.3 million residents. It turned to Blockchain technology and launched a development project aimed at safeguarding patient health records using blockchain technology in archiving related activity logs. (Of note: Estonia is the first country in the world to launch an electronic health records (EHR) system registering all the patients’ data from birth till death.). All the country's healthcare billing is handled on a blockchain, 95% of health information is ledger-based and 99% of all prescription information is digital.
This blockchain technology offers individuals a transparent and clear view of their clinical data. Estonians have chosen an electronic ID-card gadget used as their e-Health record. It utilizes blockchain technology for ensuring information integrity and protecting the data from internal threats. In this manner, any forgery is easily detectable, and adverse impact on a person’s health can be avoided. “Residents of Estonia carry smart cards through which they can access over 1000 online government portals to check their health records.” (source: https://innohealthmagazine.com/2021/in-focus/what-is-estonia-doing-with-block-chain-in-providing-healthcare-to-its-citizens/ )
