Exploring applications of blockchain in healthcare: road map and future directions

Abstract

Blockchain technology includes numerous elements such as distributed ledgers, decentralization, authenticity, privacy, and immutability. It has progressed past the hype to find actual use cases in industries like healthcare. Blockchain is an emerging area that relies on a consensus algorithm and the idea of a digitally distributed ledger to eliminate any intermediary risks. By enabling them to trace data provenance and any changes made, blockchain technology can enable different healthcare stakeholders to share access to their networks without violating data security and integrity. The healthcare industry faces challenges like fragmented data, security and privacy concerns, and interoperability issues. Blockchain technology offers potential solutions by ensuring secure, tamper-proof storage across multiple network nodes, improving interoperability and patient privacy. Encrypting patient data further enhances security and reduces unauthorized access concerns. Blockchain technology, deployed over the Internet, can potentially use the current healthcare data by using a patient-centric approach and removing the intermediaries. This paper discusses the effective utilization of blockchain technology in the healthcare industry. In contrast to other applications, the exoteric evaluation in this paper shows that the innovative technology called blockchain technology has a major role to play in the existing and future applications of the healthcare industry and has significant benefits.