The investments into blockchain technology in the healthcare industry are growing rapidly, reaching $200M according to a recent report of the major consortium R3.
Several use-cases are already implemented in the pharma industry: for instance, the potential to fight pharma counterfeit thanks to the blockchain.
The blockchain usage in the healthcare industry is experiencing a starting phase, but it presents always more and more opportunity thanks to the possibility to track patients health, share info about the population health and so on.
In this scenario, there is also a new startup, Prescrypt, a proof-of-concept project developed by Deloitte Netherlands with SNS Bank and Radboud3. It offers patients the chance to own their own medical records.
A similar project is Medicalchain that a few months ago raised more than $20 million thanks to an ICO. Medicalchain uses the IBM Hyperledger tech to track medical records and to allow people a 24/7 medical assistance through the MyClinic.com app.
How to fight counterfeit with the blockchain
Another blockchain use-case in the healthcare sector is the fight against the counterfeiting of drugs.
For example, Novartis AG, one of the most prominent companies in Switzerland, has been developing a Proof-of-Concept system based on the blockchain since 2016.
The goal is to identify counterfeit drugs and monitor the temperature, with real-time visibility for all participants in the supply chain, using the blockchain and the IoT.
This idea was born thanks to Daniel Fritz, Novartis Supply Chain IT Architect, and Marco Cuomo, Novartis Applied Technological Innovation Director. Both of them are also working on a program called IMI Blockchain Enabled Healthcare in order to find a partnership between private and public companies in Europe.
