Health is more than 2,314,000,000,000 GB of data to be managed, stored and protected It is therefore imperative to find a solution to manage such a large amount of data in an easily accessible and very secure environment. The blockchain then appears as a solution to this management problem.
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain is a technology that allows store and process a large amount of data. It is made up of blocks where data is stored and nodes that create a secure exchange network. Why is blockchain useful for health?
Although in practice the blockchain is often equated with cryptocurrencyit is well used in other fields, especially in the health sector.
Indeed, this technology allows store a lot of key information while guaranteeing its security and traceability. The blockchain can thus make it possible to create centralized patient tracking while restoring their confidence in the medical system.
But not only ! The traceability enabled by this technology might revolutionize the drug market, thus making it possible to identify counterfeits much more quickly. Currently, more than 15% of medicines in circulation come from a chain of counterfeits, causing more than 700,000 deaths per year.
Moreover, this technology might come facilitate drug research making it possible to simplify information regarding side effects, centralize clinical trialsof simplify the dialogue between research laboratories and drug distributors…
The limits of this technology:
There are many clear advantages of this technology. However, it undeniably has many drawbacks. Indeed, even if blockchain is often considered a very secure technology, practice has shown the opposite. THE risks are far too present to be able to envisage a recurrent implementation of this practice in the daily lives of patients. It should not be forgotten that health data is sensitive data within the meaning of GDPR Article 9 (General Data Protection Regulation). Thus their treatment is very supervised and requires significant protection.
The problem of data is not the only limit of this technology. Indeed, once entered in the chain, the data cannot be changed. The data therefore becomes statistical, even useless when it loses its veracity. Not to mention that the technology is still quite energy-intensive and the treatment process can be relatively long.
So many technical and legal issues facing this technology, but not making it obsolete to say the least. The various actors will have to become aware of the risk and put in place adequate measures to guarantee both security, availability and confidentiality of information.
Measures that do not seem impossible to put in place since many start-ups, such as galleon, have already succeeded in establishing a centralized and secure environment for health data.
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