Health Information Exchange is another time-consuming and complicated process that leads to high healthcare cost.
According to 2016 Breach Barometer Report, 450 breach incidents occurred but information was only available for 380 breach incidents and, the breaches resulted in 27,314,647 affected patient records. Could decentralization solve the data security issues in healthcare? Is it possible to save data securely on the blockchain?
IBMs Institute for Business Value Blockchain interviewed 200 healthcare executives and found 16% of them are willing to deploy a commercial blockchain solution.
Though healthcare centers are adopting digital technologies, the patients medical records are currently stored in the centralized servers. It creates the attack surface for hackers. Accentures survey claims one in five employees working in the healthcare is willing to sell the sensitive medical data to the unauthorized parties.
Recently, Grindr dating app has disclosed users HIV status, sexuality, GPS position, and other personal details to third-parties. Sharing protected health information of patients without their consent can make them feel traumatized. Once the medical data of an individual is generated, data enrichment is done to make the data secure.
Data stored on blockchain is like your cryptocurrency such as bitcoin saved in the crypto wallet. Though the users wallet can be identified with a public key, only a secret private key can help anyone read or understand the stored data. Any healthcare service provider would require patient consent or authorization to access PHI. If a patient denies sharing the medical data, no healthcare provider could get access to the records stored on the blockchain.
Medical data categorized in multiple formats like administrative claim record, clinical registries, biometric data, patient-reported data, or medical imaging should be stored in a structured way.
Organized data enables all healthcare providers to access data efficiently. Even more on https://www.leewayhertz.com/healthcare-blockchain-how-medical-records-secured-blockchain/, Health organizations store information on the blockchain: Healthcare vendors can save health records with the patients public key on the blockchain. Smart contracts get triggered to store the information provided by doctors, diagnostic centers, or health insurance companies on the blockchain.
Smart contracts ensure the enforcement of the business rules, compliance requirement, and the users will before the data is shared or retrieved.
Stakeholders involved in the patients treatment can consume the stored data with the patients consent.
Smart contracts will ensure a transparent, conflict-free exchange of the information. In case, the user denies to exchange the information; no one could access the patients health records.
Blockchain healthcare solution could also enable healthcare research companies to use health records for research purposes without affecting the patients privacy. Read further to understand how
Data Mining and AI in Healthcare Blockchain
But the centralized approach for maintaining the data could hinder the patients privacy. Blockchain could be leveraged to bring trust in the clinical trials and medical research process.
As discussed above, the blockchain healthcare platform could use de-identification for hiding the patients identity. So, medical research companies could utilize the non-identifiable records to carry out the research activities.
Heres what benefits could Blockchain bring to the Healthcare Industry
Efficiency:
Blockchain could turn the system highly efficient via real-time processing. It could remove the need for third-party companies, hence, eradicating the delays in accessing the data.