Blockchain in Healthcare Jacob C Abraham, BTA Sushanto Mondal, BTA Deloitte Consulting India Pvt. Ltd.

Abstract Every new technology goes through a phase cycle when introduced to the market: from initiation through the high expectations, then through the phase of disillusionment, across the phase of discovery and knowledge, before arriving finally at the phase of implementation and productivity. This new decentralized and secure method of data sharing is still in the beginning phases of this cycle. The industry has started getting oriented to accommodate this new technology and investing time and money to research on the possibilities of adjusting the environment to introduce block chain, collaborating with the academia. Even with this happy point of view, there are still some difficulties that exist in block chain implementation in health care industry. Blockchain technology with help in replacing the old technologies in healthcare and also introducing new action plans along with changing the way we see the industry.

What is a Blockchain? A blockchain is an open record of all cryptographic transactions that have ever been executed. It is constantly growing as ‘completed’ blocks are added to it with another set of accounts. The blocks are added to the blockchain in a linear, sequential order. Every hub gets a duplicate of the blockchain, which gets downloaded consequently after joining the network. The blockchain has complete information about the addresses and their balances right from the beginning piece to the most as of late finished block. Blockchain operates as a shared ledger. It keeps track of each and every transaction performed, adding and appending each to form a chain of information on transaction, usage and distribution.

Benefits of Blockchain Decentralized and shared control There are 3 separate axes for decentralization. Though they seem to be difficult to be without the other, they are independent of each other. The 3 axes are as follows: Architectural Decentralization Political Decentralization Logical Decentralization Blockchain is politically and architecturally decentralized while being logically centralized

Immutability/ Audit trail With regards to data security, the immutability nature of information put in blockchain is imperative. Immutable means consistent across time, henceforth in blockchain, once the information has been stored, it cannot be expelled. It resembles scratching in stone. This also helps in audits. This additionally helps in shielding the information from being modified. These are valuable in financial and health care transactions. Blockchains are designed with technical and business logic which has been agreed upon previously. Each node is kept in synchronous using peer to peer mechanism. There are 2 main implementation which can help in detecting tampering: Hashes Blocks

Assets and Exchanges Since the information can be stored in the cyber space, without any single element owning or controlling it, it opens up a road where each asset which we have can be sustain in the information in blockchain. This brings down the issues in setting up trades like stocks, currency, online retail and even Health insurance exchanges.

Areas in Healthcare where Blockchain can be used Securing Patient Identification Information Currently, all the health information about patients are being recorded in Databases controlled by individual organizations or group of organizations. It is not being shared with other organizations due to security issues and chance of the data being modified or tampered with. But having a single trusted source of information for health details will be a great boon to patients and healthcare organizations alike. Blockchains can be used to save this data, which can be accessed by all the organizations, allowing doctors to see the prescriptions for a patient by other practitioners. Blockchain prevents data corruption using hashes and the block chain can be design to be viewed only with a pass key

Maintaining longitudinal patient history Block chain can be used as a generic tool to keep data securely in a distributed, encrypted ledger along with controlling the resources who can access this ledger. Rather than having one central administrator that acts as a guard the health data, there's one shared ledger which is spread across a network of synchronized, similar databases visible to anybody with access. This helps in preserving the patient health records securely and the same will be accessible even if a few of the systems in the data-network are unavailable. 3. Securing Billing and Claims Sector The Financial Sector of the Healthcare industry has much to gain from blockchain technology. Secure transaction of bills and process of claims can be established using blockchains, while tracking this information in case there is a need to backtrack. It has proved its potency in this sector through Bitcoins, Ethereum etc.

Conclusion The cost of healthcare service across the world are on the rise, and administrative expenses are the largest contributor. Cost in maintaining the current frameworks and old technologies are huge, with less benefits. Blockchain can be one of those technologies which can bring about a change in these old habits and make way for faster, safer and cheaper healthcare. Blockchain is still in the first phase of discovery, and still needs to go through the disillusionment and finally come to the stage where we can start using it practically in health care industry. The more we get to know them, the more its uses can be brought to light. Many companies have already started sprouting with healthcare solutions using blockchains. It is only with combined help of both the industry and the academia can we truly bring out the potential of block chains.

References & Appendix https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain  https://blog.bigchaindb.com/three-blockchain-benefits-ae3a2a5ab102  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_currency  https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/public-sector/articles/blockchain-opportunities-for-health-care.html  https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/the-meaning-of-decentralization-a0c92b76a274 https://bitsonblocks.net/2016/02/29/a-gentle-introduction-to-immutability-of-blockchains/  http://events.computer.org/rockstars-blockchain-healthcare/  https://www.wired.com/2017/02/moving-patient-data-messy-blockchain-help/  http://www.colleaga.org/sites/default/files/12-55-blockchain-based-approach-final.pdf  https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=9909dcea-daa0-4fac-8ffa-356d46a0d079

Author Biography Jacob C Abraham Jacob has a total of 2 years of industry experience in Life Science and Health Care. He has worked in technologies like Mainframes, ASP.Net and Java .He has good experience in software testing, functional testing and is proficient in various aspects of quality assurance. He is an engineering graduate.   Sushanto Mondal Sushanto has a total of 1.5 years of industry experience. He has worked in Mobile Application testing and Healthcare domain. He has fair experience in software testing and is proficient in various aspects of testing and quality assurance. He is an engineering graduate.

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