Challenges & Opportunities for Blockchain Powered Healthcare Systems: A Review
Kefa Rabah · 2017
Blockchain, the technology that began with Bitcoin in 2009, today promises to provide the safe, interoperable sharing of real-time data between providers, payers and patients in the healthcare industry. Majorly, blockchain's automated data verification capabilities, in particular, are able to resolve many of the trust issues regarding pulling data from disparate sources. Applications of the technology in healthcare shows promise for solving issues such as its used in EHR distribution of data and nationwide interoperability. The use of blockchain in healthcare is expected to reinvent the ecosystem in limitless ways to benefit the patient and advancements in treatments, outcomes, security and costs. In effect, blockchain technology has the potential to transform healthcare delivery, placing patient at the center of the healthcare ecosystems and the capability to increase the security, privacy, and interoperability of healthcare data. It’s envisaged that this technology is expected to provide a new model for health information exchanges (HIE) by making electronic medical records more efficient, disintermediated, and secure. One of blockchain technology’s core offerings that make it a no-brainer for supply chains across industries is its immutable, time-stamped, tamper-proof ledger, accessible by its all or pre-approved participants. In this review paper we’re to step through how blockchain aid in the providing efficiency, security and privacy to management of patient care.