In the next five to 10 years, a blockchain ecosystem with healthcare-focused use cases involving health data exchanges, smart assets management, insurance and payment solutions, blockchain platform providers, and consortiums will emerge.
This is according to a report by market analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, which notes ongoing digital democratisation of care delivery models towards a much anticipated personalised and outcome-based treatment paradigm will be the major impetus for blockchain adoption.
Furthermore, the firm says, the convergence of blockchain with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, m-health and Internet of medical things (IOMT) provides new opportunities to explore digital health economies.
At its core, blockchain would offer the potential of a shared platform that decentralises healthcare interactions, ensuring access control, authenticity and integrity, while presenting the industry with radical possibilities for value-based care and reimbursement models, says Frost & Sullivan.
"Burgeoning connected health devices and the need to protect against data breaches make blockchain, with its ubiquitous security infrastructure, the obvious foundation for emerging digital health workflows and advanced healthcare interoperability. It creates an additional trust layer through unique distributed network consensus that uses cryptography techniques to minimise cyber threats," says Kamaljit Behera transformational health industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
"Blockchain technology may not be the panacea for healthcare industry challenges needs but it holds the potential to save billions of dollars by optimising current workflows and disintermediating some high-cost gatekeepers."
Behera notes the healthcare industry needs to establish blockchain consortia to facilitate partnerships and create standards for future implementation on a large scale across healthcare use cases.
"A blockchain-based system will enable unprecedented collaboration, bolstering innovation in medical research and the execution of larger healthcare concepts such as precision medicine and population health management.
"In IOMT, it can settle security, privacy and reliability concerns to allow integration of health data from Internet of medical things or medical devices for remote and autonomous monitoring. In the pharmaceutical industry, the technology can potentially save $200 billion by inhibiting counterfeit and substandard drugs."
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