Background
The right information and timely communication are the backbones of robust healthcare infrastructure. An EHR (electronic health record) system allows doctors to view patients’ data in digital format, they can view medical history, prescription records, test results, and other medical indicators. However, there is always a love-hate relationship with EHRs', on one side it is a mandatory tool for good care coordination but at the same time, it can burn out the physicians and other frontlines by being complex, time-consuming & design unfriendly.
2.Current challenge with EHR
Improving care coordination and the patient experience starts with the best capture & share of patient-level data. To do that, it requires the ability to unify the patient records across multiple health systems and disconnected EHRs. Can we create the healthcare future that puts the consumer back at its center? One that put right the industry’s current hurdles with EHRs, one that gives consumers control of their healthcare data and incentivises good health. One that fixes the terms of privacy, security, and data analytics – highlighting the need for a better, more complete solution that supports advanced predictive models for EHRs'. A blockchain-based EHR platform delivers distinct, yet interconnected advantages to all involved stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem. Let's see how.
Patients/customers
As healthcare matures, the adoption of blockchain will give patients more control over their data, improve the accuracy and security of EHRs, make healthcare services more accessible, and ultimately reduce healthcare costs. Blockchain technology can support longitudinal patient records that can compile episodes, disease registries, lab results, and treatments, including inpatient, ambulatory, as well as wearable data-assisting in more precise care delivery. Consumers own & manage access to their private healthcare data, & can also be incentivised to share high-quality reviews of services received.
Business benefits of blockchain-based EHR platform
Encrypt medical data and ensure the privacy of healthcare information
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Enhanced security – encrypt electronic patient records, protect them from being hacked and preserve the anonymity of individual patients
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Cost efficiency – smart contracts enable automated blockchain transactions to improve data integrity and lower administrative costs
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Authentication – manage identities and permissions for authentication, including the ability to verify identity attributes without divulging sensitive information of patients
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Neutral and equal – no one company or individual owns the blockchain, encouraging trustworthiness and longevity of the system
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Confidentiality – strong collaboration between organizations can occur without sharing sensitive information, e.g. individual medical records
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Traceability – An immutable record of all transactions can reduce fraud and protect against liability
Providers
Having an integrated health record for each patient that can be seamlessly shared with healthcare providers across boundaries can lead to better interoperability. This system can ensure faster and better treatment for the patients and can tremendously unlock the true value of connecting fragmented systems and providing seamless data accessibility across regions and countries. This could substantially reduce the friction and costs of current intermediaries, furthermore improving data security against frauds and hacks. The best part is that the existing EHRs need not be rendered obsolete as blockchains don’t require healthcare providers to abandon their current systems and databases, rather it can be well layered with blockchain so that one can pull data from a single authoritative source.
Slow and costly patient journeys through today’s healthcare system
Insurance
Even a smallest error can wreck a claim from being reimbursed the first time it is submitted, and then triggers a chain of unproductive administrative follow-ups. Blockchain can improve the claims validation process and catch errors before a claim is submitted, which means more of the claims get processed without the hassles of re-submissions. Shared smart contracts can be used to manage medical insurance contracts for patients (an average of 10% of claims are disputed). Also, once the claims data is digitized and easily accessible, insurance providers can use advanced analytics to optimize health outcomes and costs. Blockchain driven data verifications improve fraud detection, enable rapid pre-approvals & refunds too.
How can blockchain enable the new ecosystem?
How does it work?
