The patient is now becoming an actor in his health : telemedicine is improving and simplifying health practices and public authorities and companies are working together to develop new technologies in this field. A particular infatuation is currently developing for the Blockchain in terms of health ; thus why it’s becoming more and more relevant to question the underlying mechanism and its benefits on health data.
The Blockchain was designed in 2008 by an anonymous genius who invented the Bitcoin. It is a technology for storing and transmitting information. It is secure, transparent and operates without a control body, i.e. it is shared by these different users, without intermediaries, which allows everyone to check the validity of the chain.
We will give examples of how health data can be used :
- A secure patient registry
The blockchain will create a unified registry by setting up applications around artificial intelligence. The data would be collected by health professionals in order to maintain the patient’s personal health record. who, for example, would complete a kind of “health record” of the patient after each consultation. They can also be collected by connected objects (this collection would then be automatic after approval of the collection scheme).
The adoption of Blockchain technology in the healthcare sector will provide the opportunity to create a patient’s health history. Information associated with physician visits, prescription drugs, imaging and test results will be reliably recorded.
- The benefits of blockchain on the pharmaceutical industry
The Blockchain is a tool that allows to trace and authentify the prescription path in order to verify delivery and administration to the specific target exclusively ; in short, the Blockchain secures the drug supply chain. It secures the logistics and transport process of the product.
It makes it possible to record the fingerprints of all actions relating to a medicinal product.
- Greater transparency for medical research
It is possible to record clinical trial results on a Blockchain. The pharmaceutical company will no longer be the sole player; it will be accompanied by research centres and regulatory agencies that will ensure the validity of the information. The work would be made transparent until its conclusion. Each ensures the good behaviour of the other.
Blockchain innovation is often compared to the revolution brought by the Internet. Assuming this is the case, we must adopt a [prudent and cautious attitude toward these techniques] “small steps” technique to acclimatize new players in the sectors. In any case, the word of mouth is to be patient; as it might take thirty years for the Blockchain to be perfectly integrated.
