Blockchain Technology in Healthcare: A Comprehensive Report

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MITS5002
Assignment -2
Block-Chain in healthcare applications
Journal name: - Block-chain Applications and Use Cases in Health Information
Technology
Author name: - David Randall, Pradeep Goel and Ramzi Abujamra
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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Blockchain technology...............................................................................................................4
Why block-chain is needed for the healthcare...........................................................................5
Integration of block-chain and healthcare..................................................................................6
Applications of block-chain in healthcare..................................................................................7
Challenges faced by block-chain...............................................................................................9
The solution to the problem.....................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
The era of block-chain technology and its magic has already been seen in the sector of
business and finance. Beyond recognizing as the synonyms of Bitcoin technology, now
blockchain has more to give to the society which is chaining day to day lifestyle. With the
excellent advantage brought in the above fields blockchain has spread its wing in the health
care system changing the whole ecosystem of the health care industry. Today blockchain held
the potential and power to transform and bring promising results to the health care industry.
The purpose of the report is to highlight the importance of Block-chain technology in the
field of the health care system. The Report specifies the brief about blockchain and its various
benefits. Next, it describes the integration of this new methodology in the health care sector.
Explaining how the blockchain has transformed the working of the health care organisation.
With the pros of technology, it has many cons too. The report describes the various
challenges which are faced or can occur by using this technology. But, the rapid inventions
and growth of blockchain have provided a better approach and solution to the challenges.
Lastly, it concludes the overall learning in the conclusion part.
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Blockchain technology
Block-chain technology is the P2P network created on the distributed ledger. Initially, it is
used to store transaction records. Blockchain is formed by the interlinking of the digital
transactions records. Blockchain allows the exchange of transaction between the networks
without any trusted central authority. It consists of algorithms, mathematical equation and
cryptography mechanism to verify every transaction.
Blockchain technology allows the addition of information to the nodes but it does not allow
data to be copied and being deleted providing a secure [2] system for the transaction.
Blockchain increases the speed of transaction as no central authority is present the transaction
can happen directly between two or more needs. It also decreases the cost by deducting the
central authority charges.
Blockchain is the collection of interconnected blocks, wherein a block consist of records of
the transaction. The special nodes know as miners are responsible for determining the
sequence and validating the transaction. It also helps in executing the consensus algorithm.
Blocks are attached to validated blocks with the help of hash function. Every block contain
header and hash function of each header is included in the next block of header transaction.
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Figure 1 block are connected to form a chain.
Why block-chain is needed for the healthcare
There is a huge amount of data generated in the health care system which need to be
maintained and organised in the structure format. But often [5] the data is not organised in a
formatted manner and hence the important information cannot be accessed at the time of need
due to lack of infrastructure. There is susceptible to damage and breach occurring in
healthcare due to the absence of an administrative monitored system.
If the healthcare system stores its data in a physical machine then there are chances of
modification of data, misusing the data and corrupting it. Block-chain helps healthcare
system by storing data in blocks which is encrypted with cryptography and [4] hash
functions. Every hash function produces unique output, therefore, it won't be easy to modify
the data. Blockchain helps in protecting the integrity of data with minimizing the cost,
facilitating the supply chain.
Hence the blockchain has helped the healthcare to increase its effectiveness and work with
efficiency
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Integration of block-chain and healthcare
Involvement of the blockchain in the health care system has brought enormous opportunities
in the sector. Blockchain technology has moved the health care system toward the patient
making the treatment affordable and increase the efficiency of treatment.
Blockchain allows maintaining the record and [6] keeping the critical data in an integrated
and structured manner saving the time spend on it. It improves the quality of services
provides to the patient at a reasonable rate. Decentralisation, transparency, and distributed
ledger has enabled the organisation to adopt blockchain in their system.
Blockchain will allow doctors, staff and pharmacists to access the single database offering
high security. Blockchain is categorised in two parts: Permissioned Blockchain which allow
sharing the data in a closed network only to those having access to the network. It occurs
inside the organisation and considered [3] as permanent once processed by a consensus
algorithm. Permission-less Blockchains are the one which allows everyone to create an
address and communicate with the network.
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Applications of block-chain in healthcare
Here are the applications of blockchain which make the healthcare system more secure,
accessible and efficient.
 Secure Healthcare Database- Managing a single central database for whole
organisation risk of failure also narrow to a single point. It helps in protecting the
internal architecture of an organisation.
 Allow the patient to pay through Cryptocurrencies. - Block-chains bill processing
automation technique has helped to reduce to cost and pay using cryptocurrencies.
 Drug Traceability- Blockchain is [1] immutable which helps to track the product and
information cannot be modified.
 Clinical Trials and data Security- Clinical trial is a concern with conducting the test
and storing the information which results in a large amount of data. Block-chain helps
to store and secure trials providing transparency
 Patient data management- Block-chain helps to secure the data about Patient Health
Information (PHI) to be safe from the corruption of data. A hash is created for every
individual patient.
 Supply chain and drug detection- Block-chain helps in ensuring monitoring,
tracking, storage and distribution of drugs. It helps to ensure the ingredients of drugs
to every stakeholder present in the project.
 Prescription management- Blockchain helps in maintaining and ensuring the
delivery of health care services. BlockMedx where [5] transactions are stored in
block-chain based on Etherehm platform.
 Transparency and Integrity of data – When a large amount of data is generated
about the patient's blockchain integrity property helps to secure data without any
access and alteration. Transparency is provided by providing decentralized authority
of transaction storing data from the creation of the data block. User can easily identify
the owner of the block.
 Medical fraud detection- Blockchain provide provides the mechanism to protect the
supply chain as it involves various opens which is vulnerable to attacks.
 Neuroscience – Blockchain is utilized by algorithms to store the brain signals which
is recorded on the neural interface.
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 Clinical Photography- It is improved with the help of smart contracts which helps
patient to maintain their own data and decide who can have access to it. It is an
agreement of sharing data. Interface app is [4] open technology based on standards
providing secure operation over the whole health care entity.
Challenges faced by block-chain
Blockchain technology is growing very rapidly and has brought many revolutionary benefits
to the health care system. But it is still under mature and faces many [2] challenges which
hinder the use of blockchain. Some of the challenges it faces are listed below.
1. Integration and Interoperability with the legacy system
2. Adaption and Incentives for participation
3. Uncertain cost of operation
4. Regulation and maintenance
5. Governance
6. Scaling
7. Storage
8. Social Acceptance and challenges
9. The requirement of [5] standardization
10. Security and Privacy of data
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The solution to the problem
 HHS (health and human service) technology in blockchain identify the trends and
help in reducing complexities and creating more secure trust-less information.
 Mechanism of using private key cryptography is [1] using a secret key to code and
decode the information along with the algorithm.
 Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI) blockchain helps in employing cybersecurity
programmes.
 Blockchain and natural processing language (NPL) help in keeping the data protected
and finding information from it.
 Smart contracts and APIs has enhanced the working of blocks in the blockchain
system
 Block-chain based [6] Multi-level Privacy preserving Location Sharing (BMPLS) is
used for preserving the location of applications.
 Medical Insurance Storage (MIStore) is used to store data is developed on Ethereum
platform.
 Hyperledger is consistency and scalability function providing more than 10,000
transactions per second.
 Holachain and Hashgraph are based on more agent-centric application. It is an
example of decentralised block-chain
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Conclusion
Hence, the report highlights the importance of Block-chain technology in the field of the
health care system. The Report specifies the brief about blockchain and its various benefits.
Describing the integration of this new methodology in the health care sector. Explaining how
the blockchain has transformed the working of the health care organisation. With the pros of
technology, it has many cons too. The report describes the various challenges which are faced
or can occur by using this technology. But, the rapid inventions and growth of blockchain
have provided a better approach and solution to the challenges. Lastly, it concludes the
overall learning in the conclusion part.
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Student Id:

References
[1] Crosby, M., Pattanayak, P., Verma, S. and Kalyanaraman, V., 2016. Blockchain
technology: Beyond bitcoin. Applied Innovation, 2016, 2(6-10), p.71.
[2] Agbo, C.C., Mahmoud, Q.H. and Eklund, J.M.,. Blockchain Technology in Healthcare: A
Systematic Review. In Healthcare, 2019, Vol. 7, No. 2, p. 56. Multidisciplinary Digital
Publishing Institute.
[3] Randall, D., Goel, P. and Abujamra, R., Blockchain applications and use cases in health
information technology. J Health Med Informat, 2017, 8(276), p.2.
[4] Katuwal, G.J., Pandey, S., Hennessey, M. and Lamichhane, B. Applications of
Blockchain in Healthcare: Current Landscape & Challenges. 2018 arXiv preprint
arXiv:1812.02776.
[5] Kuo, T.T., Kim, H.E. and Ohno-Machado, L., Blockchain distributed ledger technologies
for biomedical and health care applications. Journal of the American Medical Informatics
Association, 2017, 24(6), pp.1211-1220.
[6] Linn, L.A. and Koo, M.B. Blockchain for health data and its potential use in health it and
health care related research. In ONC/NIST Use of Blockchain for Healthcare and Research
Workshop. Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States: ONC/NIST, 2016.
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