{"id":22185,"date":"2020-10-06T16:46:58","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T13:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intellectsoft.net\/blog\/?p=22185"},"modified":"2026-06-18T11:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T08:38:12","slug":"blockchain-in-healthcare-industry-real-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intellectsoft.net\/blog\/blockchain-in-healthcare-industry-real-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Blockchain in Modern Healthcare. Adopting Real Cases by 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blockchain has proved to be a disruptive technology that will help enterprises transition to optimization and enhanced security. A blockchain survey<\/a> that PwC conducted in 2018 among 600 executives found that 84% of the respondents\u2019 organizations are actively involved with distributed ledgers.<\/p>\n

\"Blockchain<\/p>\n

How mature is blockchain in healthcare, and what are the barriers to adoption? Blockchain for healthcare ranks as the number four industry<\/b> of interest. Moreover, the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) creation allowed engaging all stakeholders in a practical discussion on blockchain solutions for health.<\/p>\n

Ways Blockchain Is Taking Over the Modern Healthcare Industry<\/h2>\n

How Will Blockchain Affect the Cost of Healthcare?<\/h3>\n

Master Patient Index <\/b>and Cost per transaction.<\/b> There is an overwhelming amount of duplicated data, which translates into additional storage cost. Furthermore, over 50 different electronic healthcare record (EHR) software systems operate in various hospitals, sometimes in the same city.<\/p>\n

MedRec <\/b>by the MIT team, for example, is offering a transparent and accessible view of medical history. Their project runs on the Ethereum blockchain and is currently under development in partnership with a newly-established Healthcare Information Technology Center in Israel. Simultaneously, it is running tests of a data set from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.<\/p>\n

\"Blockchain<\/p>\n

Taken from MedRec<\/p>\n

What Healthcare Data Should Be Put on the Blockchain?<\/h3>\n

Notably, not all information should be stored within the blockchain, but a distributed ledger can help manage the data more transparently and securely. For instance, IBM <\/b>is disrupting veterinary medicine<\/a> by allowing to create and store USDA certificates<\/b> on the blockchain.<\/p>\n

Apart from certificates, there can be proofs of ownership<\/b> and timestamps<\/b> of environment conditions, so critical for logistics in the pharmaceutical field<\/a>. IBM is also working on this in partnership with KPMG, Merck, and FDA.<\/p>\n

Finally, mass-market gadgets like smartwatches and fitness trackers can track patients\u2019 state of health. Connecting them with EHRs throughout a lifetime makes it more efficient for the insurance industry to evaluate risks and calculate premiums.<\/p>\n

How Has COVID-19 Pushed for Blockchain Adoption?<\/h3>\n

McKinsey has reported<\/a> that the COVID-19 pandemic had accelerated telemedicine usage, rising from 11% to 46% in the US consumer adoption. According to them, around $250 billion of current US spending on healthcare could be virtualized.<\/p>\n

Gartner reports that healthcare blockchain use cases include a digital asset market amid record-keeping and increasing efficiency. Learn how the Ocean Protocol<\/b> has aided governments to collect and interpret critical data<\/a> for improving healthcare.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

X-Ray vision by the Ocean Protocol<\/p>\n

Will Patients Own their Data?<\/h3>\n

To say that data access will improve is an underestimation. Having full ownership over your medical data will be more user-friendly and less time-consuming. A recent case is an EU-funded project MyHealthMyData<\/b>, which is exploring how sensitive medical data is shared.<\/p>\n

How will the interaction with doctors be affected? Taken the rise of telehealth, there will often be no need to interact with a doctor to access personal data. Moreover, blockchain will improve healthcare with its key features.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

An excerpt from the McKinsey report<\/p>\n

Adopting Blockchain in Healthcare<\/h2>\n

Privacy and Security<\/h3>\n

With regulations like GDPR and HIPAA, patient privacy is not optional but a default. Organizations that operate with identifier and health information \u2013 hence, protected health information (PHI) \u2013 can leverage blockchain for such properties as<\/p>\n