Hi, I am sending you my crypto kisses from #StayHome, where I comfortably sit and write at my Node (computer in the crypto jargon) and dream about world without FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in the crypto jargon).
Today I want to speak about something that concerns everybody at the moment. Coronavirus. I think that topic put into the shade other trends and events. The good news is that it will not last forever and life must go on. The coronavirus crisis will be sooner or later finished but we must learn from it in the name of those who won’t outlive it.
From the moment the virus had a secure foothold in Europe I was asking myself how an innovative technology like Blockchain can help fighting such biological hazards as deadly viruses or any other life-threatening diseases. Blockchain may become a solution for a struggling healthcare sector that tries to cope with the virus while the world leaders are in panic and the world economy is falling into recession. Today I will try to explain how Blockchain can help to save lives.
Nowadays, the healthcare is one of the most slowly developing industry sector of the world. You may ask: how the industry, where so many smart people work, where new vaccines applied, robotics equipment is used and computer diagnostic programs are integrated, can be one of the less developing in the world. The main reasons are behind the patient care services. The most of the hospitals are under-digitalized and still file the paper documents. The rural medicine is still using the innovations from the 20th century and has a serious lack of personnel. Due to several causes, including illegal information blocking, many of patient records are mismatched even in the same health care system. Hospitals don’t want to lose their patients for another hospital while insurance claims are still processed manually and on spot. All these practices and issues slow down the work process and can cost thousands of lives. Some echoes of this problem we can observe now, during the coronavirus crisis: doctors lack the information about underlying conditions of the coronavirus patients, hospitals are short on the vital equipment and the official counts of cases fail.
Blockchain is not solution to every problem of the world. Blockchain is an innovative technology which can shake the very existence of the establishment and fear the conservative minds about the stability of their income source. Blockchain is not welcome by everybody, especially those who like to have centralization and profit from the intermediary role. It can disrupt a lot of modern industries which require modernization. Healthcare is one of them.
However, the coronavirus crisis will not leave anybody untouched and the world will never be the same afterwards. Hopefully, it will become better and smarter world. As we know, after rain there is always sunshine.
Let’s come from the lyrics to the practical side of using Blockchain. Here, I want to list several insights about using Blockchain in Healthcare and they are not all solutions for business but also humanitarian acts.
Track and monitor data about virus outbreak
In the age of disinformation, fake news and trolls the peer-to-peer exchange of information as well as tamperproof transaction log used in Blockchain technology can provide a reliable source of trustworthy information.
In China, there already exist tracking platforms which follow the total number of cases worldwide, mortality and recovery rates from infections, cases filtered by country, by interest and by region for the coronavirus. The engine automatically collect data and then the data is visualized in dynamic dashboards for easier use by researches. Blockchain technology ensures that all this shared information cannot be manipulated or modified. They were used during the peak of infection. I don’t think that the overall Chinese strategy to contain virus was ideal, especially from the human rights point of view, but Europe can definitely learn something from China. The global Blockchain system can help in collecting and storing the medical data.
Transparent donations and medical supply chains
The Blockchain platforms allow donors to see where their funds are needed. All the transactions are transparent and can be tracked. The donors receive the verification from the hospital that donations arrived. Isn’t it the ideal way to do donations without feeding the middle men? Among all the scandals with donations funds and the subsequent mistrust from donors, the way that Blockchain offers can be of real assistance to those who are in real need. Blockchain can help pharma companies to eliminate the possibility of drug falsification and supply chain manipulation by tracking the drugs from point to point.
Easy and fast insurance claims
Blockchain can help reduce paperwork. No more need to go to the hospital for paper processing and delivery. Any papers can be automatically underwritten with the help of the Smart Contracts. All of that happens automatically via Blockchain platform without human interaction what reduces the risks to get infected. Processing of the insurance claims via Blockchain is a win-win situation for both patients and hospitals. For example, hospitals can follow-up the patient’s health history and prevent insurance fraud.
Security of medical data
Blockchain can keep vulnerable medical and health data safely. The technology reduces human errors and time of access to this important data. It is recommended to use private or, so-called permissioned, Blockchains for this purpose because public Blockchains are open to everybody, they are too transparent and can be hacked for vulnerable information about patient’s health. The permissioned Blockchains look like “ecosystems” where several entities can join in. Every patient has its ID and cryptography makes these ecosystems almost unhackable. Almost but not completely. Blockchain has some vulnerable spots which I pay attention to in my future posts. The information in the ledger cannot be deleted or modified. If somebody tries to change the information via snowball effect it will set up the “chain reaction” which can block the information processing of the whole chain. This action will not pass undetected for the rest of the Blockchain users.
Summary
The top advantages of Blockchain: decentralization, transparency, immutability and security can serve the healthcare system and the patients at best. In the situation of the emergency and urgency Blockchain can become a global Hyperledger which can improve health care, ensure medical supplies and fight against illegal and criminal schemes. Blockchain can literally save lives, make the life of medical personnel easier and work of health systems safer.
Sources:
https://hackernoon.com/top-7-industries-blockchain-will-likely-disrupt-kp1kp30om
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2020/03/23/how-blockchain-technology-offers-computational-trust-for-tracking—the-coronavirus-outbreak/#767828051cd0
https://blockgeeks.com/guides/blockchain-in-healthcare/
Great article! It is scary but also very fascinating on how advanced technology is and how it can help us in many ways.
A very useful article in these difficult times, thank you! I don’t work in the medical sector, but I think some solutions you mentioned could really improve services, provided by hospitals.