For years, American patients and healthcare providers alike have been concerned about inefficiencies in the U.S. healthcare system.
From massive fees to outdated record systems, everyone is ready for a change.
Pradeep Goel, CEO of Solve.Care (an IT company that builds blockchain platforms for healthcare companies), believes that blockchain may just be the answer the American healthcare system needs.
In an interview with BeInCrytpo, Goel addressed some tough questions regarding blockchain and how it could potentially save the medical industry.
According to Goel, blockchain has the ability to make healthcare available to anyone at any time and puts a lot of power into the hands of patients. From his experience, it’s turned complex systems into a, “democratized, accessible, and equitable system of healthcare available to all.”
Solve.Care has accomplished this by using blockchain to share medical information safely and securely between doctors and patients.
Additionally, patients are given full ownership of their medical data, allowing them to be autonomous individuals who are independent from any specific organization.
“Data is decentralized, making unauthorized access to the patients’ data a near impossibility”, says Goel.
Solve.Care has also utilized the transparency and encryption of blockchain as an effective method to check credentials and create smart contracts.
Further into the interview, Goel specifically addresses an issue that he calls “information asymmetry”.
Essentially, that means that under the current healthcare system there are a handful of organizations that control all the medical data, making it very difficult to access for the people who need it.
Blockchain platforms remove the need for these intermediaries, and put all the control into the hands of the data owner. Subsequently, data cannot be shared or accessed without the explicit consent of the owner. If data is shared, the owner can track it to ensure it goes to the right individual and is used for the purpose that it was given.
There are many benefits to integrating blockchain into the healthcare system, but the most notable is this concept of enhancing compliance through giving patients more control over their personal data.
Not only do patients have the ability to decide who they give their data to, they can also retract that data if they feel it's being misused.
Bringing blockchain into the healthcare industry could solve many issues including lowering the overall cost and simplifying the complexities brought on by private insurance companies.
It could also be a huge problem solver in the compliance arena, by giving patients autonomy from organizations and cutting out the data holding middle-man for providers.
While blockchain is still a new concept, it looks like it's moving out of the finance world, readying itself to make a difference in the U.S. healthcare system.