The future of Healthcare when it comes to embedded technology as a platform involves Blockchain and its benefits.
With Blockchain and its broad capabilities of automation, data processing capabilities and security features towards healthcare, the future is both bright and yet unclear just beyond the conventional knowledge about Blockchain.
The concept of Blockchain when it comes to healthcare operates in a number of specific areas:
- Medical information processing
- Digital health leaders
- Security
- Smart contracts on health insurance
- Health tokens
- Decentralized medical applications
While the concept is defined via background use, the practical application as use cases of Blockchain when it comes to healthcare is where realization makes meaningful use of the platform’s capabilities.
Practicality of Blockchain in Healthcare
Blockchain use cases in healthcare were first developed by large-scale collaboration work groups known as consortiums. While the public use case highlights the high-level application of Blockchain, clinics and doctors are left wondering “How does Blockchain impact my medical practice?” The answer lies in Blockchain’s information processing capabilities.
With the current usage of Electronic Health Records (EHR), health information processing remains a tedious process where the constancy of repeated data entries and record retrieval is making doctors spend more time in clerical work. Due to the demands and regulations placed in health information management, the tediousness of the process to store, process and harness health information is a recurring fact.
Health Information and Data
In the future where the future of data is based on Big Data, the future of processing and harnessing data is based on Blockchain.
The amount of data to be processed in today’s health information management is overwhelming medical organizations that are equipped with EHR systems. This accumulated friction in the health administration process is proving to be costly and exhausting both system and administration. With health information being more demanding due to compliance on security and legislation, medical organizations are undersiege by their current health information administration practices.
When systems of health information processing are dependent on actors as verifiers and data keepers, the friction caused by these dependencies are simply unaccounted and the loss of productivity in terms of time and money is staggering when measured.
With Blockchain, the platform is based on the concept of optimal performance as Blockchain harnesses automation to remove process dependencies on actors, verifiers and information keepers.
Blockchain in Health Information Processing
In removing dependencies from processes, Blockchain in health information chooses to redefine verifiers from checkpoints to signals. In most hospitals, verification comes into the form of administration staff doing cross-references on conditional documents. With Blockchain, cross-referencing is done by algorithm checks that makes use of that uses “blocks” of data to whether to accept or reject pending verifications.
The whole architecture is defined as a distributed, decentralized ledger database that stores patient records, billing, health information and insurance details of both people and departments. With a distributed ledger, patients are able to take ownership of their data and be given the privilege to choose which doctors and organizations are able to see their personal health information.
The concept of Immutability of health information under Blockchain also strengthens integrity of these health records and improves trust through Blockchain’s cryptography.
Interoperability
The challenge facing Blockchain and its potential is interoperability when applied health information exchanges. The EHR systems today suffer from fragmentation, siloed self-containment and very little interoperability due to data restrictions. Blockchain is making progress to scale and open up with interoperability by allowing data integrations within these environments:
- API level
- Ledgers
- Formats
- Frameworks
- Data Exchange platforms
Interoperability in Blockchain is a critical factor in not only linking health information to health providers but also help link insurance contracts and government benefits into healthcare services.
With the growing global population that all need healthcare, the future of healthcare requires heavy information processing. With Blockchain, dependencies and process stoppers are significantly reduced for optimal health information processing.
DynaQuest is a specialized Blockchain support company that helps hospitals and healthcare organizations in getting started with Blockchain. Through systematic process of research, documentation, resource procurement and key support services, Blockchain’s primary roadblock in adoption is being bridged.