Problems and Prospects of Blockchain in Healthcare in the UK

This report provides a detailed analysis of the problems and prospects of implementing blockchain technology within the healthcare system of the United Kingdom. The study explores the motivation behind the research, which includes the potential to enhance knowledge and combat fraudulent activities within the healthcare sector. The report presents a literature review that examines healthcare fraud cases, the role of blockchain in healthcare, and research gaps. The methodology section outlines the research design, including sampling methods and research instruments. The study aims to identify challenges faced by healthcare providers, determine legal challenges, and analyze ways to prevent fraud. The findings highlight the potential of blockchain to secure patient data, reduce fraud, and improve healthcare efficiency. The report also addresses the challenges of implementing blockchain, such as the need for technical expertise and policy adjustments, and concludes with a discussion of the technology's potential impact on the UK healthcare system.

Research Methods and
Professional Issues
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Contents
TITLE: Problem and prospect of implementing block chain technology in the healthcare system
in United Kingdom..........................................................................................................................3
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Motivation of the study....................................................................................................3
1.2 Justification of the study...................................................................................................3
1.3 Statistics of the study........................................................................................................3
1.4 Aims of the study..............................................................................................................4
2. Literature Review.........................................................................................................................4
2.1 Determination of Healthcare Fraud Cases........................................................................4
2.2 The role of Block chain in healthcare...............................................................................5
2.3 Research Contribution/ Gaps............................................................................................6
2.4 Role of block chain in reducing Fraud cases....................................................................6
3. Data and Methods........................................................................................................................7
3.1 Research Design...............................................................................................................7
Sample (Population, Sample Size):...................................................................................7
Research instruments:........................................................................................................7
3.2 Research Methods............................................................................................................7
Descriptive statistics..........................................................................................................7
Logistic Regression...........................................................................................................8
4. Results and Discussions...............................................................................................................8
5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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TITLE: Problem and prospect of implementing block chain technology in the
healthcare system in United Kingdom.
1. Introduction
1.1 Motivation of the study
This study aims to analyze the problem and prospect of implementing block chain
technology in the healthcare system in United Kingdom. The main motivation of conducting this
study is that by the assistance of it, the knowledge regarding the topic can be enhancing (Alonso,
and et. al., 2019). Apart from this, there were many fraudulent activities which takes place in the
health care system. This study helps in gaining knowledge about those activities and
effectiveness of block chain technology in improving health care system and services.
1.2 Justification of the study
The main reasons of selecting this study area is that block chain has wider range of
applications as well as uses in the healthcare settings. The ledger technology provides secure
transfer of medical records of patients and manage the medicine supply chain as well as assist the
healthcare researchers to unlock genetic code (Attaran, 2020). Block chain in healthcare may
help in ease the pain of care organisation with its ability to deflate current spending bubble,
improve the health care experience and protecting the data of patient. The ability of block chain
to keep a decentralized, transparent and incorruptible log of the data of patients make it a
technology rife for the applications of security.
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1.3 Statistics of the study
The government of United Kingdom spends a total of 197.4 billion pounds on National
Health Services for public health care which is almost 2989.00 pounds per head, from this
amount 3 % to 8 % is the amount of healthcare fraud in the UK (Grover, and et. al., 2019). If
block chain technology is introduced in the health care system of United Kingdom to prevent the
fraud, then the govt. of United Kingdom can build many more hospitals or can facilitate more
health care facilities to its people unlike the Estonian government has connected its 1 million
health care records to the block chain through a smartcard called Public key infrastructure (PKI).
This smartcard gives its owner to access thousands of government services in Estonia. The block
chain based security system will accelerate transparency, auditability, and governance for the
health care record management of patient (Tijan, and et. al., 2019).
1.4 Aims of the study
Study Aim:
The aim of the study is “To analyze the problem and prospect of implementing block chain
technology in the healthcare system in United Kingdom”
Study Objectives:
The objectives associated with this particular study are as follows:
1. To identify the challenges faced by health care providers in implementing block chain
within the health care system of United Kingdom.
2. To determine legal challenges of integrated block chain technologies within health care
system in United Kingdom.
3. To analyse the ways health care system of United Kingdom can be prevented from fraud
and abuse.
Research Questions:
The questions associated with this particular study are as follows:
1. What can be the challenges faced by health care providers in implementing block chain
within the health care system of United Kingdom?
2. What are the legal challenges of integrated block chain technologies within health care
system in United Kingdom?
3. How the health care system of United Kingdom can be prevented from fraud and abuse?
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2. Literature Review
2.1 Determination of Healthcare Fraud Cases
There are various Health Care fraud cases some of which are discussed below:
Health Care Fraud Case 1:
Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Las Vegas medical practice of Nevada paid 1.5
million dollars in order to settle allegations which they violated the False Claims Act by illegal
billing. The settlement resolves the allegations that for 5 years, the practice violated False Claims
Act through billing federal healthcare programs, involving The Department of Veterans Affairs
and Medicare, for surgical services which were never actually provided to its cardiac patients.
The allegations also depicted that practice billed for expensive surgical, management and
evaluation services than were rendered.
Health Care Fraud Case 2:
It is the case from suburban Illinois where physician has been accused on federal fraud
charges for supposedly pocketing nearly 1 million dollars in Medicare as well as private insurer
payments for the services which never happened. A physician, Pranav Patel, who owned and
manage Palos Medical Care in Palos Heights, is the matter of a 12-count accusation alleging that
he succumbed fraudulent claims for the medical examinations and tests which were never
performed, and used names of some patients without their knowledge in order to submit
fraudulent claims. The accusation charges that from year 2008 to year 2013, Patel falsely
acquired, or caused his clinic to get, at least 950,000 dollars in payments from Blue Shield of
Illinois and Medicare and Blue Cross (Two new healthcare fraud cases top $2 million in alleged
illegal activity, 2018). For example: the accusation defined one occasion where Patel ready an
electronic medical record of seven pages representing that a patient had come to the care settings
for a follow-up visit as well as examination, when the patient or service user had actually come
in order to refill a prescription.
2.2 The role of Block chain in healthcare
At the beginning of 2009, a technology was introduced in the tech world called the block
chain. The technology witnessed the birth of the first viable virtual currency called bitcoin
(BTC). This technology gave the opportunity to bitcoin to be transacted without any financial
intermediaries like banks and other financial institutions. It previous time, it could not be
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imagine cross-country financial transactions without financial institutions. This incredible idea of
block chain technology assist bitcoin to operate without any central authority (Jakubowski, and
et. al., 2019). This bitcoin technology is managed through a distributed peer to peer network and
all transaction is approved by the consensuses of all users. This innovative way helps us to
redefine the way in which data is storing, validating, and authorizing the use of data over the
internet, which eliminates the traditional challenges and trust issues of using the internet. The
block chain technology introduced trust less, immutable, and almost impossible to hack any
activities within it. In short, block chain is referred as a chain of blocks connected via hash which
is developed through the hash of the previous block. That is how a certain block in the block
chain is validated (Kuo, and et. al., 2019).
Opportunities for block chain in the healthcare system of United Kingdom:
Since, bitcoin has proved that the implication of block chain is successful thus, it can be
said that block chain is nearly impossible to tamper with thus block chain will ensure the privacy
and transparency of patient’s data management. Introducing block chain will enable the
government to prevent fraudulent and abusive activities of healthcare data, through which the
government can financially gain around 6 to 18 billion pounds (Oflaz, 2019).
Challenges for implementations of block chain:
The first challenge is knowledge and understanding of this new technology called a block
chain. The second challenge is the lack of technical expertise in the industry. Third and final
challenges include policy-making regarding data management, laws, and regulations adaptions to
the new technology, organization, and regulatory authority might be reluctant to accept new
technology (Di Vaio, and Varriale, 2020).
2.3 Research Contribution/ Gaps
On the basis of systematic literature review, there are some gaps analysis in the current
study which exclude the limitations acknowledged by prior investigators. Among the studies
taken into consideration in this research, much data on the health care fraud cases is not found.
Only few studies have emphasized on maintaining medical records. Moreover, a significant gap
is also found in terms of study which examines potential data integration from various sources of
medical records into single framework (Mayer, da Costa, and Righi, 2020). The another critical
gap found in the studies is that explicitly examine the barriers to block chain adoption by users
including patients and service providers like hospital administrators or doctors. Apart from this,
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there are distinct lack of studies which adopt strategic perspective in execution of block chain in
hospital setting emphasizing on aspects like prevention of external attacks, governance or value
creation.
2.4 Role of block chain in reducing Fraud cases
A block chain is decentralized online database, that first executed to store ever-increasing
record for all the transactions utilising cryptocurrency, i.e., Bitcoin. The system works through
replacing trusted third party signatories of transaction with computational proof in order to
validate the transaction (Elangovan, and et. al., 2020). This validation is performed through
network of users who together adhere to the agreed rules previously, which are executed through
software. The use of block chain technology saves cost of mediation as it involves no mediator
and the costs related to reversing transactions while dispute arises, as the transactions through
block chain are essentially irreversible.
The implementation of block chain technology helps in addressing the critical issues
associated with legal compliance, medical diagnostics, avoiding fraud as well as improving the
care of patient in case of emergencies or remote monitoring. Block chain technology help in
developing predictive capabilities. The block chain-based system architectures which involves
internet of things, big data, wireless body area networks, sensors, cloud technology and edge
computing (Attaran, and Gunasekaran, 2019). Use of these technologies help in developing
block chain based frameworks with predictive capabilities in order to enhance the medical
informatics and diagnostics. These models have been previously researched for specific
utilitarian functions within healthcare like prescription fraud avoidance, automatic claim
settlement and verifiable data generation.
The block chain based determiners is capable of administering reliable information for
particular beneficiaries in the health care settings involving patients who retain ownership of
personal data. Beneficiaries also involves authorities like pharmacists, insurance agencies,
medical researches and doctors. They may be authorised through patients to access as well as
utilise medical data what different purposes like medical diagnostics and informatics,
collaborative medical decision making and avoiding fraudulent activities. The applications of
block chain in healthcare main benefit from exploring deep integration of technology with the
processes of business for enhanced functionality (Block chain in healthcare: A systematic
literature review, synthesizing framework and future research agenda, 2020).
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Use of block chain technology develops unique opportunities to minimise complexity,
enable trust less collaboration as well as developing secure and immutable information. The
block chain powered exchange of health information code unlock true value of interoperability.
These systems have potential to minimise or eliminate cost and friction of current intermediaries.
In the healthcare ecosystem, the block chain technology has widespread implications for
stakeholders. Capitalising on it has potential to connect fragmented systems in order to develop
insights as well as to better analyse the value of care (Ferrer Sapena, and Sánchez Pérez, 2019).
3. Data and Methods
3.1 Research Design
Sample (Population, Sample Size):
Sampling is the process through which a small sample size is selected from the large
population. There are two methods of selecting sample including probability and nonprobability
sampling method. In probability sampling, each individual gets equal chance of being selected.
On the other hand, in non-probability sampling, the chances of selecting of an individual are not
equal (Porras-Gonzalez, Martín-Martín, and Guaita-Martínez, 2019). In relation to this study,
simple random probability sampling method will use where each individual has equal probability
of being selected. The main reason of selecting this sampling method is that it helps in
eliminating biasness and ensuring valid outcomes of research. The sample size selected in
relation to this is study will be 10 respondents who are the employees of health care institution.
Research instruments:
Research instrument can be defined as a tool utilize to gather, measure and analyze data
associated with study area. Different research instruments include surveys, interviews, tests,
scales, checklists etc. In this particular study, questionnaire will use which is a tool that consists
of some set of questions which need to be answered by respondents. As this is a quantitative
research study, quantitative questionnaire will be prepared which consist of some close ended
questions that need to be answered by respondents (Meinert, 2019).
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3.2 Research Methods
Descriptive statistics
Descriptive statistics is defined as the brief descriptive coefficients with summaries the
data set and can be either a representation of sample or entire population. There are four major
types of descriptive statistics including measures of frequency, measures of position, measures of
Central tendency and measures of variation or dispersion. In this study, the type of descriptive
statistics used is measures of frequency (Tandon, Dhir, Islam, and Mäntymäki, 2020).
Logistic Regression
Logistic regression is defined as the statistical model which in its basic form utilizes logistic
function to model a variable dependent on binary. In this analysis, logistic regression is
estimating the logistic model parameters. In this particular study, logistic regression will be used
to model the probability of certain event or class existent like healthy or sick, dead or alive. It is
utilized in examining the association of independent variable with dichotomous dependent
variable.
4. Results and Discussions
In the study, relative thorough research on block chain and finds its usability in
implementing this valuable technology in the healthcare system of the United Kingdom. After
observing the success of block chain technology via bitcoin, the financial organization are
conducting more business research in order to examine block chains like the bank of Tokyo,
MasterCard, IBM, and its partners piloting block chain technology. IBM found out 15 % of
banks and 14 % of financial institutions are making plans to implement block chain in the
coming years (Tandon, Dhir, Islam, and Mäntymäki, 2020). Hence, maintaining the healthcare
system through block chain has a huge potentiality in context of improving health care system. In
health care, crucial information is scattered across many systems and sometimes is not accessible
at the time when it needed the most. The current infrastructure of health care is not adequate to
handle the exchange of information and needs certain tweaks. Incorporating block chain
technology within the health care settings will support in providing quick access to information
to the health care providers by streamline the medical records and allowed their sharing in more
secure way (Porras-Gonzalez, Martín-Martín, and Guaita-Martínez, 2019).
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5. Conclusion
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that block chain technology was
introduced as a mechanism to power Bitcoin, however it has now evolved to the extent of being
referred to as foundational technology for various decentralized application. this technology is
being utilized to develop advanced and novel interventions to enhance prevalent standard of
sharing and processing personal health records and medical data. There are many fraudulent
activities takes place in health care system which can be eliminated by using block chain
technology. This also help in improving the effectiveness of services. Implementation of block
chain technology will help in reducing the fraudulent cases within the healthcare settings and
ensures high quality care services for patients. It enhances interoperability standards whereas
maintaining the confidentiality and privacy of patient records. Apart from this, it has many viable
characteristics involving decentralization, transparency, immutability and traceability which
highly contributes in improving the health care system in an effective and efficient manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alonso, S.G., and et. al., 2019. Proposing new blockchain challenges in ehealth. Journal of
medical systems, 43(3), p.64.
Attaran, M., 2020. Blockchain technology in healthcare: Challenges and
opportunities. International Journal of Healthcare Management, pp.1-14.
Grover, P., and et. al., 2019. Perceived usefulness, ease of use and user acceptance of blockchain
technology for digital transactions–insights from user-generated content on
Twitter. Enterprise Information Systems, 13(6), pp.771-800.
Tijan, E., and et. al., 2019. Blockchain technology implementation in
logistics. Sustainability, 11(4), p.1185.
Jakubowski, S., and et. al., 2019. Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Information
Systems. Journal of Public Health, Nursing and Medical Rescue, (3).
Kuo, T.T., and et. al., 2019. Comparison of blockchain platforms: a systematic review and
healthcare examples. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 26(5),
pp.462-478.
Oflaz, N.K., 2019. Using Smart Contracts via Blockchain Technology for Effective Cost
Management in Health Services. In Blockchain Economics and Financial Market
Innovation (pp. 423-449). Springer, Cham.
Di Vaio, A. and Varriale, L., 2020. Blockchain technology in supply chain management for
sustainable performance: Evidence from the airport industry. International Journal of
Information Management, 52, p.102014.
Mayer, A.H., da Costa, C.A. and Righi, R.D.R., 2020. Electronic health records in a blockchain:
a systematic review. Health informatics journal, 26(2), pp.1273-1288.
Elangovan, D., and et. al., 2020. 12 Application of Blockchain. Mathematical Modeling and Soft
Computing in Epidemiology, p.231.
Attaran, M. and Gunasekaran, A., 2019. Applications of blockchain technology in business:
challenges and opportunities. Springer Nature.
Ferrer Sapena, A. and Sánchez Pérez, E.A., 2019. Applications of blockchain technology in
scientific documentation: current situation and perspectives. El profesional de la
información, 28(2), pp.1-11.
Porras-Gonzalez, E.R., Martín-Martín, J.M. and Guaita-Martínez, J.M., 2019. A critical analysis
of the advantages brought by blockchain technology to the global economy. International
Journal of Intellectual Property Management, 9(2), pp.166-184.
Meinert, E., 2019. Implementing Blockchains for Efficient Health Care: Systematic. J Med
Internet Res, 21(2), p.e12439.
Tandon, A., Dhir, A., Islam, N. and Mäntymäki, M., 2020. Blockchain in healthcare: A
systematic literature review, synthesizing framework and future research
agenda. Computers in Industry, 122, p.103290.
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