The Blockchain and the Healthcare Industry - Crypto Academy Season /S4W3 - Homework post for @yohan2on

lenonmc21 (68)in SteemitCryptoAcademy • 3 years ago (edited)

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Hello everyone at "Crypto Academy" it is a pleasure to be here in this new season again as a teacher and of course as a student, since, as human beings, we always have something new to learn and it is something I love to do. My goal besides educating the community, is also to acquire as much knowledge as possible in order to continue helping this incredible platform in its growth. In that sense, I want to thank the whole @steemitblog team and of course the staff of teachers who are my colleagues.

In this opportunity I want to do the assignment of the professor @yohan2on, which has a very interesting topic in his hands that deals with "The possible applications of Blockchain technology in the health industry", a very important topic and that the Blockchain could develop very easily to thus streamline and improve greatly, everything concerning the health system anywhere in the world.

Now, this assignment has only one question, so, with nothing more to say, I will start immediately with the answer to it:

Potential applications of the Blockchain in the Healthcare Industry?

Before tackling some of the most important applications that exist in the healthcare sector using Blockchain as the mother technology, you must first certainly know what Blockchain is and how it currently works:

What is the Blockchain:

The Blockchain is a distributed ledger that allows to record and/or store data in an immutable form that is distributed among a large number of nodes that are the ones that sustain the network. These nodes are the ones that verify each record or exchange of unique data, which results in the formation of a "Block " with all this information, which is completely transparent and decentralized for those who want to observe each of them.

Blockchain technology over time has evolved by leaps and bounds, this has brought inventions capable of eliminating the action of third parties that get involved and/or alter such data. One of the most striking applications currently in this technology are the so-called "Smart Contracs ", which are able to discern on their own, if a transaction comes from a correct and verified user, without the need for a person or entity to verify it. The essential and important thing about this is that the data through the Blockchain is untouchable and unalterable.

Some of the most important characteristics of the Blockchain are:

All blocks are linked to each other, so that the records contained in each of them contain the information of the previous block.
Each node that makes up the network, stores an exact copy of the Blockchain itself, also the link of each block is encrypted and as they are all connected, the data protection is very large, so is the privacy.
The "Smart Contracs" are the most important inventions of Blockchain technology so far, this has allowed the creation of an endless number of applications capable of helping and streamlining the work of almost any existing sector today, in addition to finance, economics, politics and of course health, which is what matters to us in this publication.

Applications of Blockchain technology in the Healthcare Industry.

To continue with this publication, in this section I intend to explain how Blockchain technology can be applied to the Health sector.

The transfer of data

Problem

This may be the first and most basic of all uses of Blockchain in the healthcare industry. From my own experience, I know that the history and personal information of patients can be breached and even misplaced, this is a big problem, since, for example, in my country Venezuela and in a recent case with my "Mother", we had many problems in a governmental Hospital, because her history had been created previously, years ago. Actually my mother was operated for cancer and before the operation, she had to have many medical studies done and already having medical history in the above mentioned entity, it was much easier to do them than if she was a new patient, this was not possible because all my Mother's history was lost.

Solution.

So, with this example of reality and taking into account the topic we are dealing with the Blockchain and the Health system, this clinical data of my Mother were stored and transferred securely, which facilitates access from any device with internet connection or in some cases without it, from virtually anywhere in the world. This is very important, because in this way health institutions can always have at hand any amount of data and medical history of any patient, without the need to pile up large reams of paper with information that can easily be lost.

Tracking of Medications from the Manufacturer

Problem

There is a current problem, of which we also live nowadays in my country Venezuela, where the supply chain of medicines is always altered, since, we are not aware of its whereabouts, only until the day it arrives, which prevents us from giving a timely response to the patient of the amount that could arrive of a certain medicine or exactly what day it will arrive, in addition, it is not only this, as the amount transported is unknown, the same people in charge of this, disappear medicines for their own benefit and use.

Solution

With the Blockchain at the helm and with the unique and immutable record of the amount of medicines that can be tracked through the network, this problem disappears, because we can obtain real-time data on the route of the medicines, which is very valuable and useful information for pharmacies, laboratories, doctors, health authorities and of course the patient who is the last link in the chain.

Counterfeiting and Drug Verification

Problem

Another existing problem at present, of which I am aware, although I have not witnessed a real life case like the two previous ones I explained, is the counterfeiting of drugs and medicines, something that I consider very serious in this sector and that of course happens in many places in the world. We are not at the end of knowing if these drugs are acts for the public or could trigger serious side effects for not being an original drug that allows the proper recovery of the patient, also this affects the safety of pharmaceutical companies and institutions manufacturers of such drugs.

Solution

With Blockchain technology and its application for the verification and status of original drugs and medicines to prevent counterfeiting, it is a really useful application for this industry, because with such verification thanks to the blockchain and its characteristic of immutability and privacy of data, it can make possible the elimination of these drugs and medicines from the market and fewer distribution centers of illicit drugs that can lead to death to patients, in such sense, this would end the fraudulent introduction of the same, for lack of a reliable control system that is not altered. For this type of cases, the Blockchain again provides an extremely useful application against these practices, also the idea of all this is to ensure the health of the patient with original drugs and also help pharmaceutical companies do not have so many losses due to these counterfeits.

Conclusion

With this description of the possible applications that can be applied in the health industry I say goodbye, I really enjoyed this task and I loved doing it, because I remembered real problems experienced firsthand with my mother and health institutions in my native country. Certainly Blockchain technology can repair all these problems and make health systems in all its areas, work properly and without corruption of any kind.

I hope you like my assignment, blessings and happy learning.