Future of healthcare and the synergy of blockchain and AI
The face of healthcare has been and will continue to change with emerging new technologies. The global healthcare tech is expected to grow to a $852 billion market opportunity by 2027. Among those that are likely to greatly impact the face of patient care, data security, and health operations are blockchain technology and AI. This article discusses how these technologies when combined, can further help improve healthcare and solve some of the existing problems.
Understanding the technologies
Blockchain is a decentralized ledger-based technology offering safety and transparency in data sharing. It records transactions in an indelible manner, thus making data tamper-proof. On the other hand, AI uses algorithms and data to attempt human intelligence processes for analysis, pattern recognition, and predictive modelling.
Due to this, the National Library of Medicine identifies blockchain and AI as two of the major innovations in healthcare that have shown potential in enabling the improvement of EHRs in their security. These two are foreseen to optimize health systems, enable good handling of patient data, and pave the way for efficiency.
Safe and interoperable health records
One of the pressing challenges in healthcare is the management of patient data. It is observed that with the traditional systems, there is a vulnerability of security and interoperability issues. Blockchain can tackle those challenges by:
Immutable Ledger: Blockchain keeps the record of all the transactions in a tamper-proof manner that allows it to maintain the integrity of patient information in such a way that no sensitive health data leaks out from any breach or unauthorized access. For example, Novo Nordisk has used blockchain technology for its Electronic Patient Interactive Device-ePID, which collects medical information during clinical trials with security and integrity.
Standardization of Data: Blockchain can impose one standard data structure in different healthcare providers' systems and help in smooth sharing and interpretation among them.
Now, AI enhances these features as mentioned below:
Data Analytics: AI can use machine learning algorithms on patient data stored on a blockchain and interpret health patterns and predict the ailment a patient may suffer from in near future.
Natural Language Processing (NLP): Through NLP, AI can gain deep insights from unstructured data and thus the medical fraternity will be able to come to a decision quickly.
Innovative applications like MedRec are representative of how blockchain ensures usefulness in Electronic Health Record management by giving ownership of information to the patient while ensuring that this piece of information remains private and secure. The ProCredEx system was a very good representative of exactly how blockchains could be used for the validation of professional credentials while streamlining hiring and building more trust in the workers employed within the medical workforce.
Medical supply chain management
Healthcare delivery heavily relies on a supply chain that is reliable and transparent. Blockchains help trace products from manufacturers to patients, reducing incidents of counterfeit drugs and facilitating timely delivery of medical supplies. Other key benefits of the blockchain system include:
Auditability: Blockchain ensures all transactions are recorded; thus, enabling stakeholders to trace history and movement of supplies. For instance, Chronicled develops blockchains that secure pharmaceutical supply chains and ensure medicines can reach customers in an efficient way. The tracking of such journeys is important in preventing problems related to drug trafficking.
AI-Driven Analytics: AI algorithms analyze historic trends for prediction of future demand to achieve optimum inventory management and resource allocation. Many governments of different parts of the world are investing hugely in digitalization in the health care system, block-chain for gaining transparency into supply chains, maintaining authenticity of medical products. For example, MediLedger enables tracking the legitimacy of prescription drugs throughout a supply chain for the purpose of combating counterfeit medication, and this will be very important in low-resource settings.
Speeding up drug development and clinical trials
Generally speaking, drug development and clinical trials are long and cumbersome. Integration of Blockchain and AI can facilitate the process in the following ways:
Data Integrity: Blockchain generates a safe place for clinical trial data storage. It ensures accuracy and accountability of all data. Modifications to data are tracked down and recorded in real time, thus leaving an audit trail.
Predictive Analytics: AI can process a lot of clinical data to identify potential candidates for drugs and predict responses to different treatments in patients. This could be pivotal in increasing the pace of drug development and discovery.
Improvements in telemedicine and remote patient monitoring
The adoption of telemedicine into practice revolutionized interactions between patients and their providers. With the integration of blockchain and AI, health professionals will have a better means of offering care remotely:
Data Security: Blockchain allows for the secure transfer of medical information between the patient and the provider in a compliant manner concerning privacy. BurstIQ is a prime example of this, where the company's platform helps healthcare firms manage millions of volumes of patient data in a fully secure manner, allowing responsible data sharing in the process by meeting strict regulations such as HIPAA.
Real-Time Monitoring: AI-powered devices analyze patient data and provide notifications to health professionals on critical changes. This starts timely interventions, improving the patients' outcomes.
Supporting precision medicine and management of genomic data
Precision medicine is the practice related to individualizing treatments according to one's genetic profile. In this respect, the integrated application of blockchain and AI is important on various grounds. Among these grounds are the following:
Security of Storage: Blockchain technology secures the management of genomic data in privacy and ownership of the data.
Data Analytics: AI can analyze huge genomic data sets to identify markers relating to specific diseases, thus permitting more personalized diagnosis and treatment.
The integration challenges
While the integration of blockchain and AI offers much promise in healthcare, many challenges should be overcome, including:
Regulatory Compliance: The solution provided has to comply with all existing laws in healthcare like HIPAA to maintain patient privacy and security.
Interoperability: While integrating blockchain with AI, there is a need to develop common standards that make it widely acceptable for all kinds of healthcare systems.
Scalability: The blockchain networks must be capable of handling a large volume of health data without compromising the performance and reliability of the system.
Conclusion
Blockchain technology with AI have immense potential for the transformation of healthcare, including advanced security of patient data, enhanced diagnostics, improved supply chain management, and much faster research processes. However, and with due respect to both, much of this potential can be realized only when the regulatory and technical challenges are overcome. Check out one of the older articles on the topic of AI agents and how they remove operational inefficiencies.
The bottom line is that the convergence of blockchain and AI in healthcare may reshape data management and clinical practices towards the elimination of existing inefficiencies. For the future, more connected, patient-centric healthcare could be part of the deal that will further enhance the delivery of care and improve patient outcomes, patient welfare and operational efficiency.
