Blockchain was first conceptualized in 2008, but became all the rage with Bitcoin. Blockchain is a digital ledger that records the transactions, excluding any third party. It has many features like transparency, security, privacy, accuracy, reliability, and decentralization. In the present study, the process and applications of blockchain in healthcare, and how and where blockchain is helpful for the healthcare industry, are discussed. The study shows that blockchain helps in generating a private key for its use, which can be accessed by that key only, ensuring privacy and security. Blockchain can record and manage the data of patients, which improves doctor-patient interaction with accuracy. It can also keep track of any upcoming outbreak of disease by helping epidemiologists and can help in claiming health insurance, which is helpful for both parties, i.e., insurer and insured. Lastly, it can help trace and secure the medical supplies without any fraud or manipulation, which can increase the product lifecycle by protecting the rights.
TopIntroduction
Blockchain is a technology and architecture platform conceptualized by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and launched as Bitcoin in 2009. In essence, it is a digital ledger that records the transactions, excluding any middlemen or brokers. Its unique decentralization structure ensures trust between two parties as it doesn't involve any third party (Nakamoto, 2008; Patel, 2019; Revanna, 2020). Blockchain works by storing information in recording ledgers distributed in a decentralized manner across all computing devices that are part of the blockchain infrastructure. Blockchain technology facilitates a decentralized atmosphere with no need for a central authority (Hölbl et al., 2018; Khezr et al., 2019; Singh, 2020). Transactions are both secure and reliable because of the use of cryptography. Blockchain technology in healthcare can change the whole scenario by increasing patient health data safety and confidentiality (Li et al., 2018; Wang & Song, 2018; Wong et al., 2018). Recently, blockchain technology has also been proved helpful to the medical insurance sector. It also helps identify the forged data due to its quality of transparency (Nugent et al., 2016; Arora and Nabi, 2022). There are many applications in blockchain healthcare and can improve mobile health applications by monitoring and accumulating Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) (Angraal et al., 2017; Griggs et al., 2018). Cryptocurrencies are just one example of blockchain technology (Hölbl et al., 2018). Regular electronic documentation of data structure depends on a central administrator who acts as a data caretaker. If anyone sneaks the caretaker, he can access the complete information undetectably for an indefinite period (Singh, 2020). Blockchain technology shifts to the determined transformation and rebellion. It is a chain of blocks having data and transparency of data between two parties despite the distance between them. Blockchain in healthcare assures to eradicate the threat of counterfeit medication that jeopardizes patients’ worldwide (Khezr et al., 2019). At present, Blockchain technology is being used in healthcare for data management, keeping records, privacy and security of health records (El-Gazzar & Stendal, 2020).
Difference between Blockchain and Database
A database is a collection of information stored electronically on a computer system. It is designed to hold a large amount of information that can be accessed, filtered and manipulated quickly and easily accessed by the number of users at once. In contrast, blockchain collects information together in groups, also known as blocks that hold sets of information. Blockchain structures its data into blocks that are chained together. Another difference between blockchain and database is that blockchain works in a decentralized manner i.e., it does not involve any third party whereas, database works and stores data in centralized manner. Also, one can edit the information stored in database, but in case of blockchain, once a block is added to the chain it cannot be either edited or removed.
Literature Review
The present section provides an overview on the various applications of blockchain in healthcare related to the present study through the review of various articles and literature carried out both at national and international level. The studies were mainly reviewed on the aspects of electronic medical records, security of data, insurance claims and medical supplies.