Crypto Academy / Season 4 / Week 3 - Homework Post for [Crypto Professor @yohan2on]

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTHCARE

Healthcare personnel and patients have difficulties accessing, managing, and sharing data securely. The patient should be able to keep records and manage their health information with all assurance that the integrity of the data has not been tampered with. The world would have been better prepared in the healthcare sector during the outbreak of COVID - 19 if a sophisticated data structure were put in place to manage and secure data belonging to patients. I will try to identify challenges and opportunities open for blockchain technology in the healthcare system. The main challenge is managing and retrieving huge data obtained during the generated operation in healthcare. I will mention healthcare-related blockchain products and solutions in different domains in the healthcare sector.

• What is blockchain technology?

Blockchain Technology is the recent innovation in technology that provides efficiency, traceability, secure and transparent operation throughout the supply chain in the industrial sector. Blockchain is the Distributed Ledger Technology(DLT) that is eventually taking over the operation of financial institutions as its decentralized nature gives the ability to continuously build up records called Blocks. These blocks are linked together as a chain through the process called mining, which turns pending transactions into mathematical problems to be solved. These problems are eventually solved by miners using computer programs to hash what is called a hash. Hash is a random sequence of numbers and letters that are unique to the block created, which holds a cryptographic hash of data of the previous block. For this reason, blockchain technology can lock information in the network at the same time creating a situation, where if any data of information is changed, the whole chain cloud freezes.

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Blockchain technology has proven its ability in financial transactions as it has been largely used in cryptocurrencies. It allowed sharing data over the P2P network to enhance transparency and security of the transaction. With this benefit in security and privacy, other sectors are joining the financial sectors such as entertainment, manufacturing, and healthcare.

Our goal in this study is to see how Blockchain Technology will solve some of the challenges in the healthcare sector while putting patients at the center. All in all, Blockchain technology can help patients in:

• Remote monitoring
• Medical Records
• Medical Data management
• Ownership of Records

Challenges and blockchain solutions

Healthcare is one of the sectors in the world which has suffered due to data coverage. It is not easy to get records of millions of individuals, and a sample example is the outbreak of the COVID-19 in some countries. It is for sure that some governments have been unable to give out the right record of statistics of the situation in their countries. Faced with all these challenges, countries have done well with the implementation of opportunities provided by technology. Healthcare is no longer about the big government, big medical school, and big pharma anymore. It is about implementing strategies to overcome the present challenges. Tech giants like Apple, Google. Amazon and others have developed applications to monitor respiratory sounds, body temperature, heart rate. The process was sped up due to the outbreak of COVID-19, which was like a driving force for this technology to dive into the healthcare sector.

2019-2020, is a period for us to learn any technological approach to improved healthcare, with the consideration of the patient at the center of the ecosystem. Blockchain is just the right technology to solve these unique healthcare challenges as it will provide low cost, transparent uses of data, a fast transaction in retrieving records, etc.

• Data collection and storage

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The healthcare sector records a large amount of data that needs to be properly saved and managed. When we turn to have huge data collected from patients, businesses, and services provided by healthcare. Patients too have been unable to keep track of their records, scattering pieces of data from different angles. Some Healthcare systems have gotten to delete patient data to create a location for new data. Because of this, most records are not real-time data and non-uniform with many inconsistencies making the data not unique across the system, difficult to access, difficult to understand, used, and share.

• a) Current status of healthcare record-keeping and medical history

This how the present health system work:

• Depend on the interaction between the medical personnel and the patient
• Sensitive patient data is scattered
• They are a long and tedious process in getting healthcare services
• Poor treatment of patients due to lack of critical data availability
• inadequate access to the right data by the management system
• Poor data reliability and security in the healthcare

The list above is the current situation in the healthcare sectors in some countries as medical records are still stored in papers and books and kept in distributed areas. The inability to collect these records makes it difficult to coordinate care and limit medical errors. This has been a major challenge in healthcare as it is important to record and store data easily and share it securely across the system. Healthcare needs to hold data in portable and uniform compatibility while working.

• b) Blockchain solutions for healthcare record-keeping

When it comes to data authentication, data integrity, and sharing access across a network. Blockchain technology is a suitable technology to apply to make sure medical data can be kept safe, record continuity, and ensure steady growth of transactions with the implementation. Blockchain technology is the right option to secure DNA data, medical history, and personal information for easy and direct access by the patients and the doctor on the network anywhere at any time.

Blockchain technology can aid the healthcare sector to create a record system with uniform portability with the patients at the center across the different phases. In such a scenario, the patient owns and manages who accesses their medical records as they hold the private key to their data. It will help patients to be able to access their medical records any time and anywhere in the world. The patient will have the full right to share their medical records with who they want and follow up on their medical history such as vaccines, chronic diseases, etc.

The Hash nature of the blockchain process can be a reliable storage solution for healthcare data as the health record will be hast storing the data and the patient's identity.

• Data sharing and interoperability

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When we talk of interoperability, we are referring to the ability to move data between devices and computers across a network. The inefficient interoperability has created the challenge of identifying and following up patient data. The fact that a patient's health record is difficult to retrieve, and slows down the efficiency of healthcare practice. A clear situation was the outbreak of the COVID 19, where patient health records were important aspects to ease the management of the virus. It is normal for patients to have access to their medical records when visiting a doctor who is not their primary doctor. Developing this domain will help doctors remotely monitor patients and over telemedicine consultation to patients.

• a) Current status of Existing data sharing

So far medical records have been stored in a centralized system making it difficult for patients to compile and share health records. Most of these systems are slow due to regulations, holding scattering records making it impossible to transmit, retrieve and analyze data concerning a patient. As a result, there is a high risk of medical errors in healthcare practices.

• b) Blockchain solutions for data sharing

Blockchain technology can improve this process of sharing healthcare data more efficiently and solve the interoperability problem in the healthcare sector. Here patients will be identified with a hash Id which will be a unique identifier and securely step up the privacy of the users. Patients will have autonomy over their data and sharing of the decryption key with their desired healthcare personnel or institution. The patients will be placed at the center of the ecosystem as security, privacy, and interoperability is improved as records will be up to date.

• Current status of Data security and identity management

When it comes to securing and protecting patient health records, most healthcare facilities have failed in that domain making the government step in implementing laws to protect and improve data security and patient privacy. Healthcare industries have proven to breach patient privacy by exposing the health records of patients. In 2018, over 1.4 million patient-sensitive medical records from Unity Health Hospital were exposed by hackers. We are looking at records such as lab results, treatment, insurance information, and social security numbers of this patient base in the US.

• a) Existing data security issues

Currently, healthcare institutions store sensitive information in a central location that is open to cyberattacks. This institution is usually targeted because of the sensitive nature of the data the healthcare holds. A patient's health history is important for treatment continuity. The health situation of high-profile individuals like country presidents is sensitive to public consumption. So just some of the reasons why healthcare is currently holding data security as one of the top priorities. Advanced security has enabled better data backup, real-time security to avoid attacks to help in data security and patient privacy. As hackers are working hard to breach the security protocols, healthcare industries are investing in advanced security technology for better backup, real-time security, data encryption, and Artificial Intelligence to prevent threats.

• b) Blockchain solutions for data security and identity management

Blockchain technology can enable healthcare industries to curb threats and keep private data out of reach of hackers. The data will be encrypted before being added to the chain making it immutable and difficult to decipher by any hacker. The use of private identification keys by the patients to authorized transactions concerning their medical records. Adding up to the security of the data, the data will be accurate and specific to the patients enabling a successful treatment. Blockchain technology can enable patients to keep their medical records safe and secure, and at the same autonomy over the data and can only share to any healthcare services of their choice.

Blockchain solutions for pharmaceuticals

• Drug traceability

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Drug counterfeit is a problem in the healthcare industry, where about 15% of counterfeit drugs circulate in developing countries. Blockchain can curb this problem by providing drug traceability, security, and visibility using features like proof of authenticity. Blockchain can also use a feature like a point to point tracking, which can track a drug from the manufacturing to the endpoint users is genuine. At this point, the user can verify the authenticity of the drug, and even record the effect of the drug after use for future statistics. Blockpharma

• Clinical trials

It is a method of testing a new drug or vaccine, and which results in recording huge tons of data within a controlled environment. Statistics have shown it is difficult to complete a clinical trial without fraud, and it takes years to have final results. Blockchain ability to provide data integrity, secure and authenticity of documents can speed up the process within a shorter period. With the distribution network in place, no data can be tampered with without authorization access.

Challenges of Developing blockchain-Based Healthcare.

• Technical

Blockchain software is still new and needs to be developed and refined over time as adoption and integration require investment. The fact that the present system can be scale and non-standardization. There is a high risk of information decay(medical records) that needs to be paid attention to. Another technical problem is the ability to interconnect computers(nodes) to create the network. These computers will need computing power to create blocks once a transaction is submitted. Blockchain technology required high computing power to process transactions, large-cost hardware, and software to support the implementation. Another technical setback is the ability of blockchain to handle multi-dimensional data such as images and graphs.

• Organizational

Most healthcare sectors currently have a system to manage records of their patients, and it is an incentive to use blockchain technology to create blocks of data. Blockchain will not upgrade the system, as most of the data will be left off the blockchain. The organization will need to put in investments in finding a common ground between patient data on the blockchain and that off the blockchain. Organizations will need to define the type of data type to be uploaded to the blockchain. Lastly, are the Organizations ready for changes in operating, particularly the management of employees when implementing blockchain?

• Uncertainty

Jumping into and adopting new technology is never encouraged when running a business. There is a lot to explore when it comes to blockchain technology which the healthcare sector is scared to explore. The lack of a good number of successful examples of blockchain healthcare-based projects is limiting the implementation. As I mentioned, it is new in the healthcare sector so making it difficult to be adopted.

• Regulations and privacy

The fundamental drawback of blockchain technology has been government regulations. Most governments have not legally accepted or settled regulatory concerns about blockchain technology implementation making it difficult for the healthcare sector to buy in. Government institutions still look at the distributed nature of blockchain technology as an indirect route of taking control of their hands.

Conclusions

Blockchain technology is new in healthcare and as I mentioned, it is a wholly innovative approach in the sector. The decentralized feature enables data security and immutability. Blockchain technology can secure and combine multiple patient data from different healthcare providers to help follow up on patients.

Already existing applications in healthcare have proven to be successful after implementation. Examples are

• MedicalChain

• Blockpharma

• Avaneer

• SimplyVital Health

• Coral Health

Blockchain has not been fully accepted in the healthcare sector, its application will be needed shortly as further research is carried out.

cc: prof @yohan2on