Technology has always played a crucial role in transforming the healthcare industry and making it better. Innovations and new technologies are introduced in the sector, and these days, blockchain technology is becoming popular.
Many leading healthcare facilities, hospitals, and medical facilities have started implementing blockchain in various areas. According to reports, the global blockchain in the healthcare market will be 14.25 billion by 2032, expanding at a CAGR of 34.02% during the forecast period.
In this blog, you will explore how blockchain technology is impacting the healthcare industry. So, read till the end to gain useful insights.
The Role of Blockchain Technology in Impacting Healthcare
The blockchain technology is impacting the healthcare industry in the following ways:
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Enhancing Data Security and Privacy
The healthcare sector is vulnerable to cyber-attacks. According to the latest reports, on average, 364,571 healthcare records were breached every day in 2023.
To tackle online hacks, healthcare facilities, and hospitals are implementing blockchain technology to ensure the security and privacy of patient data. Healthcare professionals deal with a vast amount of patient data daily. So, it becomes necessary to protect it from online hacking.
Blockchain encrypts patient data and stores it across a decentralized network. This approach makes it nearly impossible for any unauthorized person to access or alter.
Also, blockchain’s immutable natures ensure that once recorded, the data cannot be changed, providing a tamper-proof record of all transactions. This helps in maintaining the integrity of medical records, prescriptions, and treatment histories.
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Streamlining Medical Records Management
Managing medical records is a very daunting task. Plus, there is always a scope of errors, which later affects the overall productivity of healthcare institutions or hospitals.
To tackle this mismanagement of records, the healthcare industry is now adopting blockchain technology that simplifies this process by providing unified, secure platforms for storing and sharing medical records.
Thanks to blockchain, all the records of patients will be stored in a single place and can be accessed by any authorized medical professional from anywhere in the world.
According to the best mobile app development company in the USA, blockchain eliminates the need for transferring records from one hospital to another, reduces administrative burden, and minimizes the risks of error and duplication errors.
Moreover, blockchain gives more control to patients as they can decide who can access their medical records and also revoke access when required.
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Improving Drug Supply Chain Management
The authenticity and safety of drugs are one of the major concerns of the healthcare industry. These days, the cases of counterfeit drug production and consumption are growing exponentially.
To combat this counterfeiting, blockchain technology can help by providing a transparent, traceable record of every transaction in the drug supply chain.
From the manufacturer to the pharmacy, each step can be recorded on the blockchain, ensuring that only genuine products reach the market. This traceability also helps in situations when there is a need to recall faulty products.
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Facilitating Clinical Trials and Research
Another role of blockchain technology in the healthcare sector is to facilitate clinical trials and research programs. Usually, clinical trials face challenges like lack of transparency, difficulty in tracking participants’ consent, and data manipulation.
So, healthcare centers, hospitals, and medical research facilities hire blockchain developers in India to build secure and transparent blockchain platforms where to record trial data and manage consent efficiently.
Researchers use blockchain to ensure that the data for the clinical trials is accurate and unaltered, boosting the results’ credibility.
Moreover, as discussed before, the participants (patients) can have more control over their data and can give or withdraw consent (permission to access data) anytime, thanks to blockchain technology.
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Enabling Telemedicine and Remote Monitoring
Last but not least, blockchain is also impacting the healthcare industry by streamlining telemedicine and remote monitoring.
Telemedicine and remote patient monitoring have gained immense popularity in recent years. Many hospitals and leading medical service providers are using the former two to enhance patient care.
Moreover, to enhance these services, medical service providers are leveraging blockchain to enhance security and real-time patient data sharing between patients and healthcare providers.
Let’s understand this by an example. Patient’s health data can be monitored using wearable devices and recorded on a blockchain. Then, this data can be accessed by the doctor in real-time, allowing for timely interventions and tailored treatment plans.
Moreover, blockchain also ensures that this sensitive data remains private, and cannot be accessed by any unauthorized person while being transmitted across different platforms.
Conclusion
Blockchain is doing wonders in the healthcare industry. From providing highly secured data storage that is very difficult to hack to streamlining data transfer between patients and doctors while maintaining privacy, blockchain is impacting the sector and will continue to do so.
Therefore, if you want to integrate blockchain in your healthcare business, hospital, or clinic, reach out to a top blockchain development company and get the benefits the technology offers, such as security, transparency, and Immutability.
