Blockchain may be used in a variety of healthcare settings, but all activity within healthcare is not linked to transactions. However, public blockchains cannot be used to store private information such as identifying health data, because the data in them is widely accessible. This transparency mandates that providers consider privacy issues to ensure protected health information (PHI).
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Some specific applications of blockchain include the following.
Research
This would provide academics and other organizations access to a broad range of data, including cohorts of hundreds of thousands of patients. The availability of such vast volumes of data will substantially facilitate clinical research, safety event and adverse event reporting and detection, and public health reporting.
Smooth switching of patients between providers
The same information on the blockchain could allow individual patients to easily unlock and share their health data with other providers or organizations, through a shareable private key. This could help to make health information technology (HIT) interoperable and collaborative between different users.
Faster, cheaper, better patient care
Blockchain technology has the potential to establish a single system for storing and continually updating health information for safe and quick retrieval by authorized users. Innumerable mistakes may be avoided by preventing misinterpretation between different healthcare providers involved in caring for the same patient, faster diagnosis and treatments become feasible, and care can be customized to each patient.
Interoperable electronic health records
The blockchain could provide a single transaction layer where organizations can submit and share data through one secure system, by storing a specific set of standardized data on the chain, with private encrypted links to separately stored information such as radiographic or other images.
Mobile health apps and remote monitoring
Electronic medical records (EMRs) were discovered to be maintained safe in a blockchain network, and the data may be quickly delivered to medical staff, as well as available for self-monitoring and home care.
Tracing and securing medical supplies
Blockchain technology can help safeguard pharmaceutical supply and track their movement in real time. It can even track the labor expenses and carbon emissions associated with the production of these commodities.
Health insurance claims
The blockchain is uniquely adapted to claim processing because of its ability to present medical events as they occurred, without the potential for changing the data at a later stage for purposes of fraud.
Blockchain technologies might be utilized to improve healthcare data management with enhanced blockchain security and systems that support synchronized transactions.
Sources:
https://www.news-medical.net/health/Blockchain-Applications-in-Healthcare.aspx