Challenges
Over the last few years, private and public organizations have shown how the blockchain can transform banking, energy, supply chain, healthcare and other industries, leading to billions of dollars in cost savings and benefits. In healthcare, the blockchain’s real-time transparency and identity management capabilities can dramatically reduce the time needed to update people and the costs of maintaining redundant data. Blockchains can also help address the following healthcare challenges:
- Billions spent on maintaining redundant data across healthcare providers, insurers, researchers, government
- 20% of healthcare expenditures wasted on interoperability issues
- Complexity of managing data updates from multiple parties providing patient data
- Verifying and tracking patient identities while enabling patients to protect their identities and provide consent for release of their data
- Increased security risk due to centralized databases of patient data
- Data breaches that lead to hospital shutdowns and costly responses
- High healthcare payment ($318B in 2018) and fraud
As organizations deploy blockchain technology, a couple of conclusions have emerged:
- There are and will be multiple blockchains. In Healthcare, providers, payers or groups of providers and payers will likely have their own blockchains.
