This weeks lesson is about the Blockchain and its uses in the Healthcare industries, a very interesting subject and one that is likely to become very important for Healthcare now and more so in the future. It will help in reducing costs, reducing plagiarism, getting more accurate patient histories and keeping them secure, plus a lot of other positives, so I go right into giving my analysis of this.

Research and Discuss the potential applications of Blockchain in the Health care industry

Healthcare is, of course, one of the most important industries in the world. The well being of humans, the production of newer, better, safer medications, better health facilities, are all benefits we all look forward to. Some countries are very far ahead of others in this regard because of better technologies, better health infrastructure and quite frankly more money to provide better healthcare to its citizens. I think the Blockchain could be a big help in obliterating this paradigm and provide consistent healthcare for everybody in the world.

Costs

Having all data style as in a blockchain, readily available for any medical personnel to access, with of course the permission of the patient who will hold the keys to his medical history, reduces lengthy and costly upkeep of records. The drug industry will have all its research readily available thus minimizing research costs that keeping its scientists up to date entail, they just need to have access to the Blockchain records and the info is there for them.

The Blockchain allows for more efficient supply chains, everything is backed up on the internet in a transparent and secure manner, this results in less waste of resources. Hospitals will have all their records on a Blockchain thus again this info is readily at hand and secure. If you have seen how medical records are kept, at least in my country, you know that the efficiency of a Blockchain would do wonders in reducing paperwork and also saving time. The cost effectiveness of using the Blockchain technology for Healthcare is endless.

Drug Supply Chain

In an industry as important and complex as the Healthcare Industry, it is very easy for drugs to be stolen, plagiarized, and worst of all we can have cheap imitations or better said drugs that are not safe going into the market. With Blockchain technology we can be sure that we have the complete production process of a drug readily available so that any drug which is sold can be guaranteed to be legitimate. We or better said the Health practitioner will be able to readily see the ingredients, source of the ingredients, where it was really made, production dates, expiry date and the applications of said drugs. This would imply that everyone would be getting exactly what they need.

Complete control of medications

With Blockchain technology, we can have a complete history of every person, every illness they have had, medications they use and if they have gotten their doses of vaccines or medicines (probably anti-vaxxers won't like this) but I have a real life example, here in Honduras we have had COVID19 vaccines applied all over the country, yes we were given a paper when we received the first vaccine and it said what vaccine had been applied and when the second one was needed. This leads to a big loophole, anyone can just not take the paper and have a dose of another vaccine without any Healthcare professional knowing about it, so I could have gotten Moderna for my first time and Pfizer the second time by beating the system.

It has happened many times, there was even news of a guy who had already taken five vaccinations and it was only known because he talked about it. With Blockchain technology this ceases to be a problem, the Blockchain has every persons history, so Healthcare providers will not be using different vaccines on one person and will not let people take more vaccines than are necessary because they want to be Superman.

Conclusions

Blockchain Technology is actually a necessity for the Healthcare industry, just the ability to have the medical records of every person on earth readily available to Healthcare personnel could be a lifesaver. And the best part is that these records will be secure, just your designated medical personnel will have access to them, probably we will have to see some DNA technology combined here so if you have an accident somewhere distant medical personnel will still have a way to access your information.

All in all it is a win win, cost effectiveness, transparency, safeguards, faster medical assistance, and more benefits for everyone, I can imagine the whole of humanity benefitting from the Blockchain in this particular industry.

@yohan2on