Blockchain In Healthcare: Can It Make Our Lives Longer?

There is a lot of talk about blockchain in healthcare and how it may help. Also known as the distributed ledger technology, blockchain is a hot topic in many industries including healthcare. But how can it actually help this sector and eliminate the problems present in it?

Essentially, blockchain in healthcare is something that will improve the security, privacy, and comprehensiveness of tracking patient health records or sending and receiving them.

Right now, a patient’s medical history is a puzzle with many pieces dispersed around multiple providers and organizations. For example, one piece of your medical history is held by your primary doctor, others are held by different specialists and another might be held in wearables or medical devices that track your health.

The real question (and possibility) here is – can all of this data be combined into one system?

The answer is yes. Blockchain can help us assemble all of the pieces in real-time and view the big picture of patient’s health. It can give us the confidence of knowing every bit of information about our health, condition and up-to-date information. If it is successfully implemented, blockchain will update billions of patient records and can definitely help with curing diseases and preventing deadly ones from coming.

Aside from this, blockchain can solve many cybersecurity challenges that are present in healthcare nowadays. For example, it can prevent stealing patient data by phishing scams – all thanks to gathering the data in one place.

Currently, the only challenge that remains to be solved for possible adoption of blockchain in healthcare are the integrity-based attacks. In these attacks, malicious insiders can modify and delete data in a way that is not trackable and one that cannot be sanctioned. However, once this is properly addressed and solved, we can all enjoy the benefits of blockchain in healthcare.