Smart Contracts and Decentralization: The Game-Changing Benefits of Blockchain in Healthcare
(Photo : SIMBA Chain)

Since the beginning of modern civilization, healthcare has been one of the biggest and most important sectors worldwide. In addition to being critical to the preservation of life, it's an inherently complex industry, given the intersection of industry, government, private organizations, and patients with diverse care requirements.

However, because of its complex nature, the healthcare sector is also riddled with inefficient, outdated processes and technologies, many of which could be improved using blockchain technology. In fact, more than 70 percent of U.S. healthcare providers are still using fax machines to exchange medical information.

The past few years have exposed many of the faults still present in the medical industry. Delivering healthcare like a well-oiled machine requires that each component functions properly. Supply chains need to be robust, manufacturing needs to be efficient, and health data needs to be secure, easily accessible, and managed in accordance with privacy regulations.

However, these outcomes often aren't possible because of outdated systems and processes. However, in recent years, a growing number of medical stakeholders have started to explore blockchain technology as a solution to existing shortcomings. As a result, many new, blockchain-powered technologies have been developed and implemented across diverse applications.

Utilizing blockchain technology to share health data

With the adoption of blockchain technology growing across diverse industries, the healthcare sector stands to benefit immensely from the migration to more transparent solutions. Companies like SIMBA Chain are leading this movement by providing intuitive, low-code platforms that make Web3 more accessible.

SIMBA's cloud-based blockchain development platform allows anyone to build and implement Web3 solutions with ease. Notably, the company recently entered into a partnership with Equideum Health to build a global, decentralized healthcare marketplace known as the Equideum Exchange.

With this project, SIMBA Chain and Equideum Health (a Web3 and blockchain-powered health company that was formerly known as ConsenSys Health), aim to significantly improve the delivery of health services. The platform will empower patients by allowing them to monetize their own health and health-relevant data.

Because this data is critical to the delivery of quality healthcare, secure yet transparent access is crucial. For example, doctors and patients need access to critical health information, but so do pharmaceutical companies, researchers, and other third parties to track the administering of medications, diagnostic methods, treatments, and more.

However, health data must also be highly secure and allow for various access levels. As a result, companies, organizations, and individuals across the healthcare industry face the challenge of maintaining compliance in all communications and data sharing practices.

Although there already are many opportunities for better health outcomes, improved population health, and more accurate health data analytics, many existing solutions fail to meet strict data privacy and security requirements.

Regulations like HIPPA already define the need for a patient's ability to access their own health records, and their ability to limit what other parties, such as insurance companies, see. However, current systems make this process slow and confusing.

How blockchain benefits the healthcare sector

Blockchain technology can solve these issues with systems that integrate zero-knowledge proofs, where a given statement can be proven true without exposing anything else to the other party. Automated smart contracts and basic privacy and permission settings are also ways to enhance current processes.

Such solutions would make data sharing between health departments and organizations, like Health Information Exchanges or insurance providers, more efficient and private. Unlike current electronic health record (EHR) and electronic medical record (EMR) systems, blockchain systems are decentralized. For this reason, blockchain-based data is easily accessible to parties with the appropriate permissions.

A recent study showed that even hospitals with the same EHR systems have a data-sharing rate of less than 20 percent. The same study revealed that there is no real interoperability across separate EHR systems. Blockchain can eliminate this lack of interoperability by delivering the accessibility and trust required by healthcare providers when sharing data.

How SIMBA Blocks makes blockchain development easy

Equideum Health is currently using SIMBA Blocks to build Equideum Exchange. As a Web3 low-code tool, SIMBA Blocks streamlines the development of decentralized applications (dApps). This functionality will allow Equidium to deliver its health data exchange in early 2023 and has already facilitated collaborations with partners like Nokia, Nokia Bell Labs, Microsoft, Intel, and ConsenSys.

Once established, blockchain-based applications like the Equidium Exchange can be used to deliver powerful, value-generating features. For example, a solution that integrates zero-knowledge proofs can be utilized to source patients for a clinical trial.

In this case, researchers can filter patient health records using specific parameters. For example, if a study requires data for male patients aged 25 to 30 presenting certain symptoms, the software will only identify patients that fit these criteria.

Such solutions can also benefit patients who lack adequate oversight of their health data. "Your current health journey is set to each interaction with a physician or health system, and if they are on different EMRs, that means your health data is fragmented. A health journey should be an encapsulation of our entire health, beyond a visit to a doctor. With a decentralized system, and no sole ownership of data by a health provider, we can eventually achieve health records that accurately reflect our entire health journey," says Bryan Ritchie, CEO of SIMBA Chain.

The future of blockchain-powered healthcare

Blockchain creates trust in a trustless system and can decouple health data from personal identifying information. It also allows system administrators to easily set specific privacy and permissions settings.

The transparency and immutability blockchain offers will allow patients to access their own records; a key component of HIPAA, but a major challenge for most health providers to deliver. With a long history of transparent supply chain initiatives across the United States Department of Defense (DOD), SIMBA now aims to deliver the same functionality in healthcare.

In collaboration with MxD, SIMBA Chain will be building a Local Health Alert System to conduct on-chain contact tracing and data analysis, translating real-time public health indicators into future demand signals. This functionality will support the development of predictive capabilities for supply chain needs.

The venture is supported by a $6.25 million award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The campaign's mission is to establish a rapid response medical goods supply chain marketplace and to advance data analysis to track future demand signals. "Ultimately, healthcare is something that impacts every individual - and blockchain can alleviate so many of the challenges our health systems face today. With SIMBA Chain's mission being 'bringing web3 to life for the rest of the world' - us entering the healthcare space makes natural sense," says Ritchie.