Governments are spending more and more resources on medicine every year, with the world’s drug development market amounting to more than 350 billion USD per year. On top of that, the World Health Organization is reporting almost 40 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 and more than a million deaths since the beginning of 2020. As such, this current pandemic will only cause a significant increase in the demand for vaccines; a market that exceeded 42 billion USD in 2019 and is predicted to grow more than 14.7% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) between 2020 and 2026.
The healthcare IT market is needed for the integration of simple and more complex medical technologies. It is a 20 billion USD market and is expected to rise with 15.3% CAGR (2020-2026). However, certain challenges exist connected with cybersecurity and limited technological infrastructure.
As such, the healthcare industry needs to take a different approach now more than ever, such as having secured transactions between parties, fewer security breaches, and removing the control of intermediaries, political and monopolistic organizations, that tamper with research development and funding.
A recent report published by Healthcare and Cross-Sector Cybersecurity in 2020 stated that a lot of phishing campaigns, emails, websites, and ads target those who are having difficulties because of Covid-19.
“Significant security incidents have led to some hospitals reportedly postponing urgent surgical interventions and rerouting new patients to nearby hospitals. Healthcare organizations are thought to have been the target of aggressive cyberattack due to Covid-19 related treatment of patients, lab testing services, vaccine testing services, and/or biosafety labs.”
A Zion Market Research report also showed that blockchain will generate more than 1.4 billion USD in healthcare in 2024. This study refers to clinical data exchanges, supply chain management, billing, and claim settlements.
Furthermore, another prediction shows that the increase in demand for accessible data and administrative tools will have a positive impact on market expansion. In addition, the adoption of blockchain technology in the healthcare sector is expected to facilitate the market growth for this period. The growing number of research and development centers is also a significant factor for market stimulation.
Crypto technology can be a big opportunity for securing clinical research and trials, information exchange between doctors, laboratory specialists, as well as social and patient communities. Clinical trial protocols, studies, analyses, and outcomes can also be incorporated into data bundles and stored on a blockchain.
Now that blockchain offers real solutions to medical research and management, it urgently needs to be adopted in current healthcare projects.
Medicohealth
Blockchain technology can be applied to healthcare programs solving data protection and availability issues. Healthcare professionals, patients, and hospitals are better connected with the Medicohealth platform, as it allows for the safe and efficient communication between specialists and patients, thus creating better medical service in terms of competence, ratings, prices, and availability. Payments made within the system are completely anonymous.
The Medicohealth platform helps fill in shortages of medical specialists and diminishes waiting times for patients. A database of doctors licenses can also be created within the system. By means of the ERC20-based MHP token, professionals will be motivated to provide helpful opinions and comments within the system. Alongside service vouchers and maintenance needs, the token also provides better access management. In addition, medical records are securely stored in one decentralized system.
Genexi
Genexi is a foundation focused on biomedical and biotechnological research as well as treating infectious, hereditary, and other diseases. Its platform works with medical specialists and pharmaceutical companies in fields such as gene therapy, genome analysis, regenerative medicine, MicroRNA diagnostics, as well as implantable sensors and DNA vaccines.
Computer-based Drug Development and Systems biology’s technological approach to genetic analysis has advanced in recent years, and new types of therapies and products are being developed for treating many life-threatening diseases.
Research in the field of synthetic biology and reaction organisms can solve future fuel crises by creating cleaner renewable sources of energy without the traditional toxic output products.
Blockchain and smart contract technologies prevent double spending, data leaks, unauthorized fund transfers, and fraudulent practices.
The Ethereum-based GEN token is used as a tool for maintaining the network, payments within the system, and also for investing in other biotech projects.
ClinTex
ClinTex’s mission is to rapidly deliver medicine to the market at a more competitive price, directly to the people who need them most. The process of sharing the data for clinical trials will benefit the secure blockchain information transmission, machine learning, and AI protocols for predictive data analytics. The setup of key applications will then be revolutionized in several additional fields: patient recruitment and retention, clinical data statistical monitoring and visualization, risk and vendor management. These optimizations will include post-marketing surveillance trials for monitoring the long-term impact on the quality of life of the patients as well as the cost effectiveness of the specific drug therapy. Except for the clinical trial intelligence units, pharmaceutical companies will also benefit from statistical monitoring and the data-sharing process. Blockchain will help against any alteration of the essential clinical and historical data needed for research as well as quell any payment disruption during the trial process.
In an interview with Neill Barron, Director of Clinical Data Services at Clintex, he explains how blockchain can change the way trials are conducted: “...as a blockchain can operate seamlessly across diverse systems and data formats, this allows for the calculation and storing of CTi metrics across multiple clinical trials, whatever the source. The result is further refinement of algorithms and the creation of a perpetual learning platform that allows for powerful predictive analytics.”
Through ClinTex’s Clinical Trials Intelligence platform, the clinical trials will be processed faster, allowing pharmaceutical companies to engage in more cost-effective methods to the production and delivery of the new medicine to the market. The Clinical Trials ecosystem consists of seven decentralized applications that are linked to a single platform.
Clinical Trials Intelligence will utilize different Ethereum-based CTI tokens for payments and verification within the system.
The ClinTex platform is the first to offer a comprehensive solution to the clinical trial industry.
It is clearly evident that blockchain technology can and should become largely integrated in healthcare. Even though most of these projects are still in the early planning stages, the results of their application will be evident in the very immediate future.
There will be an increasing demand for a multifaceted approach and an alliance of physicians with blockchain experts that will relish in the opportunity to use the rapidly evolving need for integrating digital technologies with the field of medicine.