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Question: Research and Discuss the potential applications of blockchain in the healthcare industry

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Introduction

Blockchain technology is the technology that is simply defined in a decentralized distributed ledger, where information is securely recorded or stored. In this blockchain system, once information is recorded or ]stored, it cannot be deleted or changed. Blockchain technology provides privacy, transparency, and other security to any information that is recorded or stored in blockchain technology. A man named Satoshi Nakamoto invented blockchain technology to make bitcoin transactions safer and easier. All of us who are involved in cryptocurrency transactions have an idea that blockchain technology is used for many purposes in today's world. If blockchain technology is used in the health sector, then the health sector will improve and the health sector will be safe and secure. Many countries around the world are now thinking of using blockchain technology in the health sector. A state called Estonia used blockchain technology in their healthcare in 2012 and currently 95% of their healthcare services are using blockchain technology.

The potential applications of blockchain in the healthcare industry are discussed below

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1:- Patient data record

• We know that information recorded in blockchain technology is very secure and if any information is recorded in this technology, it can no longer be deleted at will and this recorded information can be viewed by anyone at any time. If we wish, we can record the patient's information in blockchain technology in the medical service where all the medical information or medical documents of that patient will be recorded. In medical service blockchain technology, all the medical records of a patient that will be recorded are all the medical prescriptions of that patient, medical reports, medical equipment used in the treatment. For example, when a patient goes to see a new doctor for a diagnosis, the doctor may want to look at the patient's previous prescription because the doctor may want to know if the patient has been treated incorrectly or if the disease has been diagnosed before. There are many benefits to the doctor in giving treatment.

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• But in most cases the patient fails to show the prescription and medical reports given by his previous doctor to the current doctor who came to treat him. As a result, the doctor did not get the prescription and medical report from the previous doctor, so he took a lot of time to get the treatment and did a lot of tests, which is a very time consuming matter and costs the patient a lot of money. But in medical services, if the patient's medical reports and prescriptions were recorded using blockchain technology, the doctor could easily see it and he could treat the patient accurately. In this way, if the patient data can be saved using blockchain technology in healthcare , the treatment can be done accurately and it will take less time and the medical cost of the patient will be reduced a lot. Moreover, if you can save the patient's data using this technology, it will never be lost, so if the patient goes to see a doctor at any time, that doctor will be able to see the patient's previous medical prescriptions and medical reports and give him treatment easily.

2:- Patients remote monitoring

• Remote Patient Monitoring is a method of testing the patient's patience through body area sensors and IoT devices with mobile phones. It is monitored to give first aid to patients using software programs on mobile devices to give first aid to different types of diseases such as high blood pressure, fever, etc. But these are not very easy to do, if you want to do these, you have to keep a record of the patient's previous disease data, then the doctor can easily treat them from a remote place. In this case, blockchain technology is playing an important role in the healthcare sector. If patient data can be recorded using blockchain technology, remote patient monitoring will be possible very easily.

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3:-Clinical trials

• Bringing a new medical product to the market, i.e. medicine or other medical products, requires a variety of tests. Clinical trials are a way to test these new drugs. Clinical trials are conducted to determine the quality and effectiveness of these new drugs and to ensure their effectiveness and tolerability before releasing new drugs on the market. Moreover, before any new vaccines are released, they have to be tested extensively and it takes a long time to test them. One by one, data comes to perform all these experiments and those data have to be stored through blockchain technology. Clinical trials take a long time and can take up to a few years, so the data needs to be stored and stored properly so that it is not torn or stolen. All data or data obtained through clinical trials is stored by blockchain technology and cannot be modified without any authorized access.

4:- Drug tracking in healthcare for safety

• We know that in every country of the world, patients are given different types of medicines from health to medical and these medicines come from different sources or from different places. In medicine, the medicine that comes from different sources or different places is the medicine but not all of them are real. Different medicines are also adulterated. Radiofrequency identification scanners can be used to determine the authenticity of these drugs, i.e. whether the drugs are genuine or adulterated.

• If those who provide medicines in medical are registered or recorded their name or company name through blockchain technology then it will be very beneficial for healthcare and healthcare will be much safer. If blockchain technology is used to record when a drug comes from which place or from which company, then no adulterated company dares to supply the drug to the medical because when it is found out that the drug is adulterated then it is against that company. They will not dare to supply adulterated drugs as action will be taken. This will benefit the patients a lot as they will be free from taking adulterated medicines and by taking the real medicines they will be able to expect their cure very soon.

Therefore, it can be said that if blockchain technology can be used in healthcare in this way, the health sector will improve very fast and patients will be safe.

5:- Medical equipments tracking in healthcare

• We know that every medical in every country requires a lot of medical equipments and these medical equipments cost a lot. But every year these valuable medical equipments of the hospital are largely wasted. In most cases, the quality of these medical equipments deteriorates due to poor quality and every year due to the deterioration of these medical equipments the hospital suffers a lot of financial loss. In addition, many hospital staff or miscreants often smuggle medical equipment to other places. For example, in the hospitals of Bangladesh, it is seen that those who take care of these medical equipments smuggle these valuable medical equipments from the hospitals to the outside hospitals i.e. private hospitals and sell them at a much lower price. If these medical devices are connected through blockchain technology, it will be possible to track these devices using RFID. As a result, the perpetrators will not be able to move or sell medical equipments or even stockpile medical equipments.This will allow doctors to know in a very short time which of the medical devices is good and where they are, and it will save them time and money.

With the use of blockchain technology, medical devices can be tracked using RFID, so that medical devices cannot be stolen or smuggled, thus reducing costs and using them properly when needed.

6:- Vaccine record in healthcare / Public health

• As a result of the Covid Nineteen outbreak we see that the importance of public information has been widely highlighted and health information of a particular group has been defined as the result. The prevalence of Covid-19 is further exacerbated by the fact that if patient samples taken at a hospital are not stored through blockchain technology, the information obtained from those samples will no longer be available when needed, making treatment difficult.

• We have had different types of vaccines since childhood but we do not know which vaccines we got for which disease but if these vaccine records could be kept in blockchain technology now we could easily know which vaccines we got for which diseases.

• Many people in the world today are being vaccinated against Covid-19. If the information on the vaccine that people took to protect themselves from this Covid-19 was kept in blockchain technology, they would be able to know later how many vaccines they had received and what kind of vaccines they had received. Moreover, if the information of vaccinated people is kept in blockchain technology, then the government can easily understand how many people in the country have been covered by this vaccine. At present, the government of Bangladesh is providing free Covid-19 vaccine to the people of the country and is collecting the number of people who have been vaccinated through a technology and giving a certificate to those who have been vaccinated. But if this information or records were stored through a blockchain technology, it would be much safer because we can often lose or lose this vaccine certificate, so if we put it under blockchain technology we could pick up or view that certificate again later.

Blockchain projects in the healthcare sector

We know that many projects have already been launched in the healthcare sector. The major projects launched in the healthcare sector are discussed below:

• Denta coin project in the healthcare industry:

The denta coin project is the first blockchain project to benefit dentists and their patients. Through the Denta coin project, patients can get treatment from the dentists of their choice and many times these patients give reviews of the dentists so that they are also rewarded.

• Farmatrust project in the healthecare industry:

• The Farmatrust project is a supply-chain project and this project works to improve the supply-chain associated with the healthcare industry. The project empowers various pharmaceutical companies to verify and select drugs and prescriptions, as well as the ability to verify the validity of drugs. The Farmatrust project prevents the spread of counterfeit or adulterated drugs in the healthcare industry.

• Robomed project :
  After collecting patient information, the robot project is used to share it with the patient's healthcare provider. RobMed is currently using the Robomed project to securely store and share patient records in medical around the world.

Advantages of blockchain applications or technology in the healthcare sector

• In blockchain technology, once data is saved, it is no longer possible to delete or change it. So if a patient's previous medical report and prescription can be saved through blockchain technology, then he can show the medical report and prescription to any other doctor without any hesitation.

• If the medical reports and prescriptions shown to the patients by the previous doctors are preserved through blockchain technology, the present doctors can easily give the right treatment by looking at those reports so that the patients get better treatment.

• If the healthcare sector can be brought under blockchain technology and if data from all sectors of the medical are recorded then adulterated medicines and medical products will not be able to enter the medical field and the quality of the medical equipments will also be good so they will not be easily damaged.

Disadvantage / Challenges of blockchain applications in the healthcare sector

• Although blockchain technology has many advantages in the healthcare sector, it has some disadvantages and these disadvantages have to be faced by the healthcare sector. We know that blockchain technology in the healthcare sector recorded patient data, but it is not very personal to the patient. Many people can read this data if they wish, which can be a danger at times. Another big problem with blockchain technology in the healthcare sector is that there is a lot of data in the healthcare sector that blockchain technology cannot contain because blockchain technology has a certain limit for holding data, not more data. Moreover, blockchain technology requires a lot of electrical energy which is very costly.

Conclusion

• The present world is the age of technology or globalization. The more technology dependent a country is in today's world, the more technology it will use, the more developed it will be. The medical system of a country plays an important role in the development of that country. In the present age, if a country does not improve in the medical system or is not technology dependent in the medical system, then that country will never be able to improve. Many countries around the world are now using blockchain technology in their healthcare sectors. This is because in the healthcare sector, all the data of the patients is being recorded through blockchain technology so that the doctors can easily look at those data records and give the right treatment to the patients, it takes less time and also reduces the medical expenses of the patients. It is hoped that considering these benefits, most countries in the world will soon be able to use blockchain technology in their healthcare sectors.

From this lecture I have gained a lot of knowledge.Thank you very much sir @yohan2on for this beautiful lesson.

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