Understanding Blockchain Technology in the Healthcare Industry

avatar

Hello everyone, hope you all are doing good? This is the beginning of an exciting two part series, which promises to be informative and also educative, do well to follow all the parts, as you will definitely gain 1 or 2 useful information from the series. In today's article we would be looking at impact of blockchain technology to the health care industry


healthcaredatacollective_dubai-1024x695.jpg

Source


Blockchain technology is the future of technology, as almost every aspect of our economy are trying to integrate blockchain technology into their way of doing this. The financial aspect of our economy has witnessed the most positive changes since the introduction of blockchain technology. Because of the positive changes seen in the financial section of our economy due to blockchain technology, other sections such as agriculture, sport, health and others are already integrating blockchain technology to their sectors.

In today's article, we would be discussing the impacts of blockchain technology in the Health care sector/industry. As we all know, health is one of the most important sector of economy, without the proper functioning of our health care sector, Human existence might go into extinction. We could see how the COVID-19 shock the entire world, and our health care industry came to the rescue with the creation and production of vaccine which has brought some kind of normalcy to the world. Hence, you see just how important the health care industry is and that's why the integration of blockchain technology will only make it even better. But how? We shall discuss on the impact of blockchain technology to the health industry, to know just how the integration will have some positive effects to the industry


use-cases-blockchain-healthcare.jpeg.optimal.jpeg

Source


What's The Impact Of Blockchain Technology To The Health Care Industry


Blockchain technology has made positive impacts to some areas in our health care industry, which are;


  • Supply Chain

  • Patient Care

  • Government Policies

  • Health Professionals


Supply Chain: Blockchain technology has made some positive breakthrough in the supply chain aspect in the health care industry. We know that some people do sell fake drugs in order to make profits. Patients/public take these fake drugs which they think should help resolve their health issues, but won't and this has sometimes lead to the death of some patients.

But with the integration of blockchain technology, patients/public will be able to know the originality and authenticity of the drugs they will be taking by using the RFID - (Radio-Frequency Identification) scanner to check the authenticity of the drugs, hence, less occurrence of deaths due to fake drugs.

Also, RFID can be used to track hospital items. As we know hospital items are quite expensive and some greedy health personnel do cash in, by taking some health items out of the hospital and selling them. But with blockchain technology, that will be a thing of the past, as hospital items can be tracked, hence, the end of stealing of hospital items and that's a huge gain to hospitals, as they will be saving money which could have been used to buy stolen hospital items.


iStock-1036131880-727x409.jpg

Source


Patient Care: Patients care is kinda of the whole idea about the health care industry. So how can the implementation of blockchain technology help this aspect of the health care industry improve for the better? For instance, I personally, have lived in different states within my country(Nigeria) and every time I visit a hospital in any of the various states, I will have to register with them and have a record with them and as soon as I move to a new location, all those records are gone, I will register with a new hospital again and the doctor will start asking of my previous health conditions and so on.

Whereas with blockchain technology, I will have my record saved on the blockchain and when I move from state to state, and visit a hospital, my records will be connected to the new hospital's network, as soon as I provide some details of my account and it will help the doctors and health personnel know my health condition better and provide better health care service to me. It will make it easier and better for both patients and health personnel for blockchain technology to be integrated to the health care industry.

Also with blockchain technology already been integrated in the world of Internet of Things(IoT), it can help patients keep track on their health condition at every time. Patients will be able to know their heart rate, insulin levels, blood levels and others by wearing just a wristwatch or wristband which will be connected to the blockchain and even linked to nearby hospital networks, in case of emergency. Because there was an instance, where a patient suffered from heart attack and collapsed, his wristband noticed his condition and sent an emergency distress signal to a nearby hospital and they rushed down to the patient's house and revived the patient, hence, blockchain technology integration to the world of IoT and health care industry, literally saved that patient's life.


iot-health-of-iot.jpg

Source


Government Policies: With the integration of blockchain technology to health care industry, government policies will be greatly improved as government will be able to have more accurate information about the general health of public, hereby making better policies to improve the health care industry of the country.

Most countries government, don't have accurate information of the health status of it's citizens at different states. Some states have increased death rate or increased disease occurrence. Sometimes, the government don't have a clue, because records of patients are not properly kept and recorded. But if they are, the government will know how best to tackle health challenges of different states, by making the right government health policies.


Health Professionals: With the integration of blockchain technology, health professionals with be able to interact with other health professionals quite easily as information on any latest research breakthrough can sent or tracked by health professionals in that field.

Research breakthrough on different fields such as finding the cure of AIDS, Cancer, and other chronic health conditions can be updated on the blockchain. This will help health personnel not to waste their time on research that have been already carried and also help them get up to date with latest breakthrough, in order to look for ways to improve on it.

Also, health personnel can easily reach out to other health personnel across the world, if they are confused about a procedure or health condition and they will get answers easier and faster.

Lastly, health personnel will be able to have a quick access of patients' record and this will help them provide better service to their patients, as they can easily track their patients' health condition from the beginning and know the best way to tackle any current health challenges faced by patient. No more, are you allergic to this or that, because you(health personnel) already know everything about the health condition of the patient.


iot-in-healthcare.jpeg

Source

⚫️⚪️⚫️

Thanks For Reading



0
0
0.000
0 comments