Blockchain in Healthcare: Learning Lessons from COVID-19 Pandemic
Every big global event becomes a significant lesson in history, learning from which can prevent us from repeating the same mistakes if a likewise situation has to occur again. We cannot change what’s already happened, but finding the mistakes and rectifying it is still in our hands.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is still ravaging innumerable nations, with the number of casualties spiking in many. Although the mortality rate is fairly less than the recovery rate of this virus outbreak, the attempt to prevent contagion has put lives and livelihood on standstill. It has had a dire effect on more than just the healthcare front. The only hope of freeing the world of novel coronavirus rests on the discovery of a vaccine or drug, that is still in progress.
Just like the pandemics in the past, the COVID-19 situation will come to an end and we will bounce back to normalcy. However, there is no guarantee that humankind will not be confronted with a similar situation in the distant future. Therefore, it falls upon us to take a hard look at the areas where we and the system went wrong, determine the cause and rectify it.
In this blog, we will take a hard look at the pain areas within the global healthcare industry, that caused in an escalation of the pandemic crisis and try to find solutions to the same in blockchain technology.
COVID-19 Baring Healthcare Flaws:
In a global health crisis, it is the hospitals, medical and healthcare professionals, healthcare organizations, pharma companies, and the other stakeholders within the healthcare industry who are in the frontlines of the battle. However, in the COVID scenario, the existing system was found to be ill-equipped to tackle a crisis of such epic proportions. It has exposed the fundamental flaws within the healthcare industry, which made the world more vulnerable to the outbreak.
Nations that once took pride in their superior healthcare architecture suffered major setbacks in containing the virus, being faced by multiple challenges such as the depletion of critical medical resources, sluggishness of the supply chain, lack of interoperability and transparency between different organizations within the industry, etc.
The way we see it, four main areas need immediate attention and reformation, which are:
Ø Medical supply chain
Ø Health insurance claims processing
Ø Clinical research, and
Ø Medical data and identity management.
It’s not the people but the dependency on an outdated system that has caused the situation to worsen. However, it can be rectified to prevent a post-pandemic repetition, by blockchain integration, and it has already started in many geographies.
Blockchain to the Healthcare Rescue
Now that we have identified the healthcare pain areas, it is time to bring into light the solutions that blockchain can offer.
Pain Area 1: Medical Supply Chain
The medical supply chain is one of the primary pain points in this whole crisis. No sooner than the COVID-19 started multiplying patient numbers across geographies, a major depletion of critical medical equipment as found in all nations. The already insufficient supply of test kits, drugs, personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, etc was worsened by a broken-down supply chain management protocol.
The current global supply chain system lacks trust, transparency, and integrity. The processes are too complicated and time-consuming considering an emergency like a pandemic. There is the involvement of multiple intermediates at various checkpoints, not to mention the slow and untraceable transactions, and dependency on paperwork and personnel interaction all of which ultimately lead to a lack of trust and coordination between the participants. It derails the entire operation when hit by a crisis.
Blockchain Solution:
Blockchain upholds its values like transparency, interoperability, traceability, and immutability to address each of the above-mentioned issues. Using a DLT network, it brings all the participants within a medical supply chain under one roof so that any transaction of information and otherwise can happen directly, without the need of an intermediator.
Each transaction is recorded in an immutable and shared ledger so that there is transparency, creating an environment on trust among participants. The shared ledger also helps in tracking of the goods and the details in real-time. A blockchain-backed system uses a smart contract instead of a normal contract, that gets implemented once all the clauses are met eliminating the need for human interaction or manual documentation.
A blockchain-based system will not only streamline the supply chain, but it will also ensure that there is never a depletion of critical goods, quality-degradation, or counterfeit issues concerning drugs.
Pain Area 2: Health Insurance Claims
The COVID-19 crisis brought to light the issues with the processing of health and life insurance claims, that is usually slow and heavily dependent on paperwork. Just like the supply chain, the insurance industry is ridden with too many third-party involvements, which leads to a lack of trust and coordination.
It suffers from the same time-consuming and complex legacy architecture that is devoid of any transparency, leading to delay in claims processing and payment. There are a lot of people filing for health and life insurance claims in this ongoing pandemic which is taking ages to process putting the ones claiming in a monetary fix. The lack of personnel due to the lockdown protocol has only worsened the situation.
Blockchain Solution:
A blockchain-backed system takes minutes to process a claim and for the payment to reach the person filing. Just like the supply chain the DLT network acts as a coordination platform for all the parties involved starting from healthcare outfits, insurance companies to payment processors.
The shared ledger offers immutability of records and total transparency and use of smart contracts ensures the compliance of regulations. It eliminates the need for human interaction and paperwork, and a blockchain-based payment system supported by a peer-to-peer model ensures that the person claiming gets paid instantly and easily.
Pain Area 3: Clinical Research
The permanent solution to a pandemic caused by a novel virus is to find an antidote, a vaccine that will eradicate the disease once and for all. However, it is easier said than done. Discovery and formulation of a vaccine is an extensive process that requires a comprehensive study of the virus, the symptoms and stages of the incubation period and effects of the infection, patient conditions along with in-depth study and analysis of the virus, and its reaction to potential vaccine compounds.
Once a compound is found, it has to be tested on animals and then on humans for approval and finally, it goes to mass production for distribution. Every stage of the clinical research process involves the study and analysis of a substantial amount of various data and coordination among organizations and laboratories. It is a complex and time taking process, to begin with, and when confronted with a pandemic emergency, clinical research needs streamlining and speeding up as well.
Blockchain Solution:
Blockchain helps in easy coordination among research participants along with proper managing of all the data. It upholds the accuracy and transparency of the development process. Smart contracts and identity management comes in handy during the clinical trial stage with the involvement of patients.
It ensures the privacy of patient data. Smart contracts are also used in ensuring that all the regulatory compliances are met. Since all the data and results get updated into the immutable ledger the regulatory authorities can keep tabs in real-time and provide approval without causing any delay in further checking the reports.
Pain Area 4: Medical Data and Identity Management
This is closely related to all to the second points mentioned already in this blog, which is the management of clinical data and patient records. Luckily, this is that one area where blockchain has already been put to use in certain geographies partially to streamline the data management. However, it is not enough to deal with a global crisis.
For a traditional data management system, it becomes next to impossible to handle such bulk loads of data with proficiency. In such a situation when hundreds and thousands of patient and clinical data are getting entered into the system regularly, it becomes hard to track, which carries security risks and misplacement of data.
Identity management is equally important as it is integrally associated with patient information when it is used to process insurance claims or during clinical trials.
Blockchain Solution:
Blockchain ensures that all medical data remains private, accurate, secured, and easy to trace when needed. When medical data is stored on a blockchain network it eliminates the risk of mistakes and enables easy accessibility of all records. The best part of such a system is that it keeps the control of data identified in the hands of its owner. On a blockchain system, it takes just seconds to authenticate and authorize the execution of operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic will be marked in history as one of the biggest lessons to humankind. It is a wake-up call to all of us to move on and transform the legacy system, fortify the same with the new age technologies like blockchain, so that we are better prepared for a global pandemic or any other form of crisis, in the post-pandemic future.
