If you look at it carefully, a drug prescription is a foremost thing that initiates a formal treatment. Therefore, its cruciality in any healthcare system is significantly high. Unfortunately, in recent years, there has been a surge in prescription fraud from a variety of actors. We will explore every potential use case in this article and then establish as to how Medical Veda aids in curbing each one of them.
Before exploring the roles of doctors, patients, and pharmacies, we must initially establish that the people who actively use narcotics are quite creative in their jobs, and they can coin a new shortcut very quickly.
One of the primary ways of executing a forgery, in this case, is to steal a genuine prescription from a patient. Not only the patient is deprived of the medication unless he revisits the doctor office, but the person with, a prescription can also use the drugs for an illegitimate purpose, without being noticed. Furthermore, since digital prescriptions are being dished out in some parts of Canada, the patient data is not entirely secure since there is no concept of blockchain in healthcare. It implies that in case of a hacking event, the details of patients using certain drugs can be extracted and then it is only a matter of time before the forgery takes place with the help of ID theft.
WHAT’S THE ROLE OF MEDICAL VEDA?
Well, we play quite a futuristic and robust role in this regard. The very first step is to implement permission control. Although it is an entirely democratic system, some decisions, like the permission controls of doctors and pharmacists, is left under the authority of government. It ensures the maintenance of check and balance. Therefore, as a primary step, the government specifies clearly as to which doctors are entitled to dish out the prescriptions and authorizes pharmacies to respond to each prescription in an appropriate manner.
Secondly, one of Medical Veda’s core features is that we have made users (i.e. patients) the actual owners of their data. Previously, when they used to upload information through any online form, they were basically ‘giving away’ the rights to 3rd parties. But that is not the case anymore and in this blockchain-based network, patients can determine the users with whom they are willing to share their information. As a result, any illegitimate or fraudulent user in the ecosystem cannot use someone else’s ID to create a fake prescription.
It is also worth noticing that we have channelized the flow of information among all stakeholders to ensure that the processes are not affected by any external communication. For instance, from the time a patient visits a doctor, receives a prescription and goes to a pharmacy to get the required drugs, a complete flow (with details of relevant actors) is recorded on the immutable ledger. Therefore, even if the patient deceives, The pharmacists would simply have to enter the prescription number in the system to determine whether the patient was indeed prescribed a drug or not.
As technology attempts to bridge multidisciplinary gaps, we have yet to see a full embrace within the healthcare sector. The way our data is processed and retrieved in Canada is so far behind other industries that often you’ll still see operating rooms using pen and paper to record procedures before filing them away in an outdated database. It’s confusing, unnecessary, inefficient, and lacks transparency.
With the utilization of blockchain technology, we can expedite the process for our healthcare professionals and empower our patients with easier access to their information.
The premise of blockchain technology is transparency, immutability, and retrieval that is smooth, secure, and fast. With Medical Veda’s implementation of blockchain, everyone involved in healthcare will benefit tremendously. As of current, for many patients who want to review their past medical history, it can be a daunting task.
Traditional methods entail research facilities utilizing data from patients and returning a self-serving profit. Medical Veda’s ecosystem ensures that those who willingly provide their information in studies will be rewarded with a portion of its profit. Patients will have a better understanding of what’s going on with their data, how it is being utilized, and at their discretion, can choose to profit off research opportunities that they can put back towards their future medical expenses.
With blockchain being a distributed ledger system, Medical Veda provides transparency between our research facilities, pharmacies, doctors, and patients. Currently, database systems are unique to each hospital system leading to an inefficient transfer of data that can be costly and time-consuming. As many centralized database systems are fragmented and difficult to navigate, data sharing is at risk of hacks and fraud. Medical Veda’s ecosystem helps everyone stays up to date on prescriptions, diagnosis, and updated patient history. This will lead to fewer malpractices, fewer instances of fraud, and a more efficient process that removes a lot of the headaches that are currently associated with healthcare.
With technology being a baseline measure of how industries improve, the utilization of Medical Veda’s ecosystem is the next big leap for the advancement of healthcare. Giving our patients control and an understanding of their medical data empowers them to make better-informed decisions about their own health as well as incentivizes them to stay involved with the progression of scientific discovery. Research institutions have direct access to necessary information in a streamlined process that is cost-effective and efficient. Healthcare professionals, in general, are all kept in the loop about updated medical history, prescriptions, and diagnosis so that everyone is better informed and can take the proper steps to prioritize patient safety.
Medical Veda is taking the initiative to put our patients first and focus on what really matters.
