Blockchain Technology for Biomedical Engineering Applications

The healthcare industry is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries involving more than 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of several countries globally. The industry is under strict regulatory norms, involves a complex system of different interconnected entities leading to fragmented patient data and enhanced costs due to system inefficiencies leading to lack of complete transparency in data transactions, data traceability issues, and security concerns for the patient. To overcome this problem, blockchain technology has gained considerable attention in several domains, including the healthcare industry, to ensure secure and reliable management of real-time clinical healthcare patient data. This would help in reducing healthcare costs, accurately report all clinical trials to overcome substandard and fake drug usage, which are still major areas of concern in the healthcare industry. The technology could be employed to support patient data management, hospital supply chain management (SCM), pharmaceutical research, online patient monitoring through hospital telemedicine set-up, and hospital billing 246system. The blockchain follows peer to peer integrated network where any transaction request made is broadcasted to all nodes and needs to be approved by all nodes to be added to the blockchain network. The blockchain system comprises of a decentralized database with open access, transparency, and autonomy to all users who are logged into the network to access information and regularly update after approval when required. Once the records are updated in the blockchain network, it cannot be deleted or removed easily without authentication and approval from more than half (51%) the number of users on the network.