How Blockchain Technology Will Disrupt the Medical Industry

The blockchain market is anticipated to be worth around $60.7 billion by 2024 as predicted by the Globe Newswire website. It shouldn’t be a surprise that technology will cause unpredictable disruption in various sectors of the economy. One area that it revolutionizes is the ways industries handle their data in terms of storage and security.

Blood Pressure

Among the sectors that will be disrupted the most is the health industry. Since this touches on just about everyone in the world, the changes to expect can increase the quality of services offered to patients worldwide. In addition, blockchain technology will most likely help lower a significant portion of the healthcare expenses that we pay today.

Here are four ways that will revolutionize the health industry:

Improving Clinical Trials

While the data collected during clinical trials can be a building block for different medical technologies, in the wrong hands, it might lead to undesirable effects on the lives of the contributors. Issues such as identity theft are imminent in such situations. Nevertheless, the data should be shared with sponsors and regulators to make the most out of it.

Blockchain can make the sharing of such data quite secure. Through it, research companies can collect data from different patients and virtual sites with a reduced risk of data breaches. Since complying with consent management is a vital regulatory requirement, according to EMMA International for compliance consulting services, then the technology could make it possible for the research contributors to have a say on who uses the data they provide.

Supply Chains

For medicine and medical devices to reach the end-user, every part of the supply chain system ought to be perfect. For instance, certain medical devices and transplant organs need to be transported under certain temperature conditions to prevent damage. Through the use of blockchains, companies can track and manage the data of their medical products while in transit to the end-user.

A manufacturing company could use sensors to collect the temperature data and receive it through the blockchain to uphold the standards of their products. Additionally, it can also be used to determine the location of their products while on the way to the market.

Increasing the Usability of Medical Records

Gone are the days when the health industry relied on paper-based documents to store their data. Instead, data is stored in electronic medical record (EMR) systems where doctors can easily share the information with their colleagues and patients, according to TechTarget. However, EMR systems can be incompatible or institution-specific, which can be a challenge.

Such incompatibilities are not only inconvenient, but they also act as bottlenecks to the flow of patient information between different institutions. Luckily, blockchain technology can provide a centralized ledger through which healthcare stakeholders can access patient data faster and securely.

Improve the Internet of Things in Healthcare

The Internet of Things promises to cause a lot of disruption in the healthcare industry. It will allow doctors to remotely track the health status of their patients remotely and react accordingly. Additionally, it will allow technologies such as digital twinning to have a foothold in the industry where engineers perform preventive maintenance on medical devices without necessarily having to dismantle them, as noted by E-spin Corp.

Internet of Things

Blockchain technology will facilitate the secure transfer of data through the internet of things. Doctors can provide their patients with services no sooner than they are needed, and medical devices can experience reduced chances of breakdowns. This will further fortify the use of such technology and revolutionize the medical sector at large.

Conclusion

Innovations in the health industry will almost always come bundled with new problems. Luckily, blockchain promises to bring about even more solutions to these emerging issues. As the technology undergoes more scrutiny by innovators, there is no limit to what it can offer.

This post may contain affiliate links that allow us to earn commissions at no additional cost to you. We are reader-supported so when you buy through the affiliate links, you are also helping or supporting us. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

JaypeeOnline