How will Healthureum change the healthcare industry with the help of Blockchain?

The importance of the blockchain technology to the healthureum project can neither be quantified nor qualified completely. This is because its applications in the project are so numerous and diverse that their presence, as well as the extent to which they affect the project, would probably never be fully understood by most members of the general public who are going to be the biggest winners. Having said this, I would strive to pass on my knowledge of this topic, which is also relatively limited, in the hopes that its importance would be better appreciated when the time comes for such.

The blockchain is basically a decentralized, distributed database of records or public ledger of all transactions or digital events that have been executed or shared among participating parties. By principle, each and every transaction in the public ledger is verified by a consensus of a majority of the participants in the system. Of utmost importance, is the fact that once information is entered into the blockchain it cannot be erased. In summary, the ledger would contain a digital fingerprint of the transaction or information, being stored or shared rather than the actual document itself. This possesses the dual function of proving the existence of the document while assuring complete privacy as regarding its contents. Therefore this technology can be used to store existence of various documents like legal documents, marriage licenses and health records.

Considering the state of both private and public healthcare systems, Healthureum has the potential to revolutionize healthcare as we know it. For instance, blockchain based anti-counterfeiting solutions that introduce transparency to supply chains can be successfully applied in the pharmaceutical industries to combat drug counterfeiting. This would prevent or at least greatly reduce the volume of fake pharmaceutical products on the market. Such an aim could be achieved by simply generating measures through which products that have been certified by appropriate agencies can be labeled, validated and recorded in blockchains thereby cutting out the possibility of fraudulent companies counterfeiting their own goods. The authenticity of these validated products can then be verified by the consumers or retail outlets alike. This would greatly prevent the use of fake drugs. The blockchain technology could be equally advantageous to the pharmaceutical companies as supply chains could be used to weigh the supply and demands of various products thereby providing insight into the necessary amounts to be supplied consequently reducing wastage and also costs. Such systems of verification are already common but basing them on the blockchain technology would provide them with the much-needed transparency to be fully effective.

The adoption of the blockchain technology in the healthureum project would also affect the health information technology profoundly. The health information technology used by both the private and public healthcare systems is under a lot of strain. This strain has helped to outline its inadequacies as the system in use is neither as foolproof nor as efficient as the blockchain technology being proposed to take its place once the healthureum project is firmly in place. The current health information technology system requires a lot of hardware and software which in turn require a lot of maintenance which translates to an increased number of zeroes on the expenditure tab. The blockchain technology, on the other hand, would reduce cost and increase efficiency while also assuring an unbreakable chain of data entries that would allow for more open, secure transactions. This would make administrative tasks such as the sorting of claims payment and determination of eligibility way easier and less time-consuming.

One of the major problems affecting the current healthcare system is fraud. This eroding influence increases the expenditure of the system sizably but can be tackled in the Healthureum scheme. The blockchain technology can be used to ensure secure communication, safe transactions and execution of smart contracts. Smart contracts are basically computer programs that execute the terms of a contract, such that when preconfigured conditions of a smart contract between participating parties are met, the relevant parties are automatically paid. The payments are made transparently through the blockchain. Fraud can, therefore, be combated by creating unique identities on the public ledger of a blockchain. Corresponding identifiers are then stored in the embedded chip of an electronic device. The identifiers in the device create a directory through which secure communication is possible, and all the transactions would also be recorded on the blockchain. Through this innovation, financial transactions would be adequately monitored thereby eliminating all possibilities of systemic fraud. Information such as health records can also be shared securely between relevant parties without risk of leakage.