Blockchain in Healthcare Today

Scalability Performance Analysis of Blockchain Using Hierarchical Model in Healthcare

Lipsa Sadath, MSc, MCA, Deepti Mehrotra, PhD, Anand Kumar, PhD — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Blockchain technology has emerged as a pivotal point to enhance privacy and security in enterprise applications and cyber world. However, scalability is an issue researcher are grappling with, in large enterprises, especially in organizations bearing multiple levels of hierarchy and access privilege. Therefore, the existing models and consensus algorithms suffer one way or another. The medical or healthcare sector suffers this problem the most due to the huge amount of data and probably the central point of failure of the traditional database management system. This paper addresses the situation through a hierarchical model in Hyperledger fabric enterprise application through a healthcare sector use case. Multiple organizations are added to each hierarchy considering them as different organization levels (Hospitals, Hospital Governance, and Insurance company). Currently the first implementation has two levels of hierarchy to show networks of hospitals joining an Insurance Company. Our primary experiment revolves around this model to test and enhance the performance of the network. Performance of the model is assessed by varying and scaling environmental parameters such as the number of organizations, transaction numbers, channels, block intervals and block sizes. The benchmarking tool used is Hyperledger caliper to test various indicators such as success and failure rates along with throughput and latency. The current work only tests the scalability of the model with patient data.

Blockchain Applications in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Background: In recent years, blockchain technology has made great strides in diverse industries but has fallen behind within the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry is complex and would benefit greatly from the distributed database and emphasis of information privacy promoted by blockchain technology. This paper identifies the potential best application for blockchain technology in the United States pharmaceutical industry by identifying current trends, companies exploring the possibilities of blockchain technology, and industry concerns with opportunities for improvement.

Methods: We utilized a 4D framework using ease of implementation, novelty, necessity, and fit of the overall industry to examine the adoption of blockchain technology in the pharmaceutical industry. Based on the 2D framework of difficulty and novelty as driving factors for the development of foundational technologies in the world of business by Iansiti and Lakhani in The Harvard Business Review, each application was ranked and scored for the best potential implementation. The potential applications proposed in this paper can be grouped into two main categories. The first category, management, includes best use cases such as health records, clinical trials, and inventory systems. The second category, monitoring, highlights cases such as pharmaceutical products, preventing counterfeits, optimizing supply chains, and addressing prescription misuse and abuse.Results: Each application was ranked by the four metrics in the framework, giving the greatest weight to necessity and ease of implementation. Using the highlighted methodology above, the applications for best implementation include Prescription Drug Misuse and Abuse Prevention, Prevention of Counterfeits, Clinical Trial Outcomes, and Smart Contracts.

Conclusion: Blockchain technology offers a new and promising solution to pharmaceutical industry needs. Each application of blockchain technology must fit within the framework of necessary, ease of implementation, familiarity amongst stakeholders, and fit of the overall industry to promote the most appropriate use. By using the extended framework proposed by Iansiti and Lakhani we show that blockchain, in all these domains, shows promise to improve pharmaceutical industry performance.

Highlights from Advancing the Business of Health with Blockchain and Frontier Tech at ConV2X Symposium 2023

Tory Cenaj — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0800