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Blockchain is coming and could solve many of the challenges that the health care providers experience has today. But where exactly will it be effective and what use cases should organizations watch as they move forward? Here, there is much debate.
To help lay the foundations, a new PwC report, "A prescription for blockchain and healthcare: reinvent or be reinvented" four areas where blockchain will have the greatest impact in the health sector.
OTHER FROM HEALTHTECH: Health IT leaders impact the impact of blockchain.
1. Better manage the supply chain and the inventory of medicine
Pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, distributors, regulators and almost every part of the health care supply chain could benefit from transaction monitoring blockchain offers.
"Each time a company entered a transaction with another company in the supply chain, that transaction would be recorded and validated on the blockchain, which would simplify the transfer of data and would allow product beneficiaries to validate their provenance with greater In addition, it would greatly simplify the reconciliation of transactions and transfers of data, "the report noted.
This would also simplify the calls for regulators and suppliers.
In addition, blockchain allows everyone involved to "agree on a story," wrote Gus Vlahos, CDW's director of health sales in a recent blog post. This agreement, in turn, could "guarantee the integrity of a supply chain against fake, falsified or shoddy medicines. "
2. Streamline registration, payment and contract data
Before a doctor can officially enter an office, a network or a hospital, the organization must confirm credentials such as education, licenses and more. So how it is, it takes 120 days to transfer medical data, on average. Blockchain could change it.
"A blockchain-enabled system would allow data relevant to the credential process of the provider and the payer to be shared and updated in real time. Processes that take weeks or months could be achieved in days, "notes the PwC report.
The functions and payments of the back office could be managed in a similar way. Contracts and payments are now manually controlled in a long process, but blockchain transactions could be coded in smart contracts, with information stored on blockchain. This will facilitate the time needed to make and monitor payments and reduce contract time and fraud, reports the report.
3. Manage, collect and exchange patient data without problems
With patient data currently distributed across disparate and rarely available systems in a centralized location, one of the biggest problems facing the healthcare industry today is how to better aggregate and manage patient data.
Blockchain can help "by bringing together health data and distributing it to the necessary entities, while allowing data to be owned by patients," notes the report.
4. Monitor risk and regulatory compliance
Ensuring and tracking compliance is a constant headache for suppliers. Blockchain can simplify the search for compliance and documentation "allowing companies to more easily track product recalls, audits, product distribution monitoring than ethical and credential requirements," notes the report. And when reporting is required, companies can use intelligent contract logic to "ensure that certain actions trigger the required reporting" based on the data stored in the blockchain.
What is needed to implement blockchain in the health sector
Keeping these examples in mind, how should healthcare professionals start to implement blockchain? The use of technology must be part of a global technology strategy, the authors of the report insist.
"Companies should not just have a hammer – blockchain – and be looking for a nail, they should give ample space to the motivation behind an implementation," say the authors.
A good starting point would be to ask what could be the "smallest and clearest case for a blockchain" for a company, then work from there. And when technology is piloted, it is crucial to think about the ecosystem in which it will work and consider regulations, infrastructure and other stakeholders along the way.
"The introduction of blockchain technology in the healthcare sector will not occur from one day to the next, nor will many of its benefits be immediately achievable, but the main transformations start with small steps," the report authors point out.
