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Medtop analytics

Medical trends
that industry will face

Special report by our analytical agency in order
to enhance your strategy

Industry is looking forward to blockchain and telemedicine

Medical equipment is one of the fastest-growing areas of technological progress because every year, the demands of medical institutions change depending on the emergence of new types of technology.
Herman and Devay's (2008) research demonstrates the main medical technological areas with potential for significant development within and after ten years. In Herman and Devay's (2008) interview, participants were experts in engineering, pharmacy, healthcare policy, and technological analysis. According to Table 1, the most potential technological devices with high benefits and low risks in near ten years are acoustic devices, telemedicine systems, imaging devices, and photonic devices, while the least potentially significant ones are miniaturized devices, portable or mobile devices, and augmentation products due to their potential high risks.
This article focused more intensely on telemedicine systems and blockchain technology in medicine.
Telemedicine systems are based on using telecommunications technologies to diagnose or treat disease
Telemedicine Systems
While wound care and dermatology were the most prevalent clinical areas of telemedicine technologies, orthopedics and neurology were the least popular ones. The wound care system requires a frequent visit of a medical worker to a patient, which is both time-consuming and increases the workload on nurses. However, telemedicine can solve this problem.
Telemedicine technologies are suitable for sharing images and videos of patients in real-time
Telemedicine remotely connects patients with nurses, and accessibility of communication devices such as smartphones for patients make this process easier and more accessible. (Wilson and Maeder, 2015).
Moreover, Wilson and Maeder claim that telemedicine is helpful in emergency help in rural areas when online consultation of professionals is required in a limited time. In this case, telemedicine technologies can be used as virtual critical care systems by sharing information about medical images, vital signs, and anamnesis with online specialists. For example, in Arizona, this technology is used in 5 rural are hospitals (Latifi et al., 2009).

Currently, centralized systems of medical records storage are popular among medical institutions.
Blockchain
One of the potential areas is implementing an integrated electronic patient portal (Herman and Devay 2008). Currently, centralized systems of medical records storage are popular among medical institutions.
However, these methods of sharing personal information are not safe
However, these methods of sharing personal information are not safe. For example, in 2021, as a result of the hacking attack, the personal information of 40 million patients was leaked. However, it can be prevented by using blockchains(Jercich, 2021). Blockchains are usually associated with cryptocurrency; however, blockchain can share not only electronic financial resources but also any information without the risk. Siyal et al. (2019) claim that blockchain technology can improve the privacy and security of patients' medical data and allow patients to be engaged in their health care by controlling their medical records.

Moreover, blockchain has the potential to be used as the central data-sharing technology among medical institutions. For example, prototype "MedRec" works as a decentralized management system, does not store medical data but only data marks to share it via blockchain (Siyal et al., 2019).

To sum up, blockchain technology has the potential to increase the level of privacy and security in the healthcare system.
  1. Herman, W. A., & Devey, G. (2008). Future trends in medical device technologies: A Ten-Year Forecast. Retrieved March 18, 2022, from https://click.endnote.com/viewer?doi=10.4258%2Fhir.2015.21.4.213
  2. Jercich, K. (2021, November 16). The biggest healthcare data breaches of 2021. Healthcare IT News. Retrieved March 18, 2022, from https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/biggest-healthcare-data-breaches-2021
  3. L. S. Wilson and A. J. Maeder. (2015, August 26). Recent directions in telemedicine: Review of trends in Research and Practice. EndNote Click. Retrieved March 18, 2022, from https://click.endnote.com/viewer?doi=10.4258%2Fhir.2015.21.4.21
  4. Latifi R;Hadeed GJ;Rhee P;O'Keeffe T;Friese RS;Wynne JL;Ziemba ML;Judkins D; (n.d.). Initial experiences and outcomes of telepresence in the management of trauma and emergency surgical patients. American journal of surgery. Retrieved March 18, 2022, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19969150/
  5. Siyal, A. A., Junejo, A. Z., Zawish, M., Ahmed, K., Khalil, A., & Soursou, G. (2019, January 2). Applications of blockchain technology in medicine and healthcare: Challenges and future perspectives. MDPI. Retrieved March 18, 2022, from https://www.mdpi.com/2410-387X/3/1/3
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