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Securing India’s Healthcare Future with Blockchain
Blockchain & EHRs in India: The Next Digital Health Revolution
Context: As India’s population grows, so does the demand for high-quality healthcare. Digital health solutions, particularly Electronic Health Records (EHRs), have become central to improving accessibility, affordability, and efficiency. However, the digitalisation of patient data also introduces new vulnerabilities.
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- Centralised systems are frequent targets of cyberattacks, compromising sensitive patient information and eroding public trust.
- A promising solution lies in blockchain technology, which offers a decentralised, secure, and transparent method of storing and sharing medical data.
- This innovation has the potential to protect up to 90% of medical data from unauthorised access and breaches, marking a major advancement in healthcare data security.
Blockchain’s Role in Strengthening EHR Security
- Traditional EHR systems often suffer from centralisation, fragmented structures, and inadequate access controls. The 2022 ransomware attack on AIIMS Delhi highlighted the urgency of strengthening healthcare cybersecurity in India.
- Blockchain offers a decentralised framework, distributing data across multiple nodes rather than relying on a single server.
- This enhances system resilience, reduces reliance on central authorities, and facilitates secure data sharing between hospitals—solving long-standing issues of interoperability and patient data access.
- By leveraging cryptographic hashing (e.g., SHA-256), blockchain ensures data integrity—any change to the data triggers a new hash, flagging potential tampering.
- Smart contracts, which automatically enforce and verify rules, can regulate EHR access by granting or revoking permissions to specific healthcare providers, empowering patients with control over their data.
Global Use Cases and Relevance for India
- Countries like Estonia and the United States are already employing blockchain for healthcare.
- Estonia, through a partnership with Guardtime, has decentralised its health data system, allowing citizens to manage access and prevent unauthorised changes.
- Similarly, MedRec, a project by MIT Media Lab and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, provides secure blockchain-based access to medical records in the U.S.
- These global examples demonstrate blockchain’s potential to safeguard health data, ensure transparency, and streamline access—benefits that India can adapt to meet its unique healthcare challenges.
Blockchain in the Indian Context
- India’s Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), launched in 2021, aims to integrate health records nationwide. However, challenges such as data privacy, provider reluctance, and interoperability issues hinder its progress.
- Blockchain could serve as a national infrastructure layer for healthcare, offering:
- Automated workflows and reduced administrative burdens
- Fraud prevention and improved billing accuracy
- Smart contracts to manage patient consent
- A tamper-proof audit trail to improve accountability
- Studies by PwC and projects like the National Blockchain Framework indicate the Indian government’s interest in decentralised technologies for citizen-centric services.
Key Enablers and Challenges
- Several Indian initiatives—such as the IIT Bombay–BFI collaboration—are exploring how blockchain can democratise access to medical services.
- Combining blockchain with AI and IoT can further enable real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and enhanced data integrity. However, realising this vision requires:
- Integrated infrastructures
- Robust data governance frameworks
- Standardised interoperability protocols
- Hybrid blockchain models for scalability
- Clear regulatory frameworks to ensure compliance with laws like GDPR and HIPAA
Policy Roadmap for Blockchain Adoption
- A successful national blockchain implementation depends on:
- Government regulations to guide innovation while protecting privacy
- Pilot projects with defined goals to test solutions before full-scale deployment
- Collaboration between healthcare providers, tech firms, and policymakers
- Public-private partnerships to boost adoption, particularly among private hospitals
- India must also develop encryption standards, consensus protocols, and access management rules. By ensuring interoperability across systems, blockchain can facilitate consistent and secure exchange of health data.
Conclusion
Blockchain, when selectively and strategically deployed, has the power to transform India’s healthcare landscape. It can elevate patient care by making health data more secure, accessible, and transparent. As the country works toward a more connected digital health ecosystem, blockchain could become the foundation of a trusted, efficient, and patient-centric EHR system.
