Smart Contracts Transforming Healthcare Transactions

Abstract

Blockchain and smart contracts are transforming transactions in healthcare by enabling automation, transparency, security, and decentralization. Smart contracts, self-executing agreements encoded with specific terms, are utilized to streamline many processes, including patient data management and complex financial transactions within the healthcare industry. This chapter explores how smart contracts can change healthcare transactions and examines their advantages, such as addressing one of the major concerns with administrative overhead and reducing fraud. This chapter offers a broad overview of healthcare transactions on blockchain, explaining security vulnerabilities including gas transaction fee attacks, transaction replay attacks, front-running attacks, weaknesses in blockchain protocol, and phishing risks. It provides an overview of creating smart contract platforms discussing their roles in providing automation, transparency, and higher security. It also discusses how interoperability between healthcare applications enhances the feature efficiency of healthcare applications. The chapter concludes with potential future directions of smart contracts in the healthcare sector. This chapter ultimately shows that smart contracts are the future of healthcare in terms of improving efficiency, lowering costs, and creating decentralized data management that is secure.