Blockchain technology, with its foundational principles of decentralization, immutability, and cryptographic security, presents a novel paradigm for addressing persistent challenges in healthcare management. This article investigates the application of blockchain beyond cryptocurrency, focusing on its potential to transform health data exchange, supply chain integrity, and patient-centric data governance. The objective is to critically analyze how distributed ledger technology can enhance the security, transparency, and efficiency of key healthcare management processes. Through a review of proposed frameworks, pilot projects, and conceptual models, the article evaluates specific use cases including the creation of unified, patient-controlled health records, the secure and auditable sharing of clinical trial data, the authentication and tracking of pharmaceuticals through the supply chain to combat counterfeiting, and the streamlined management of provider credentials and claims adjudication. Results suggest that blockchain offers compelling solutions for enabling granular patient consent management, providing a single source of truth for disparate medical data, and reducing administrative fraud and inefficiency. However, the conclusion strongly emphasizes that these theoretical benefits are tempered by significant technical, regulatory, and practical hurdles. Major challenges include scalability limitations for handling vast volumes of health data, high computational energy demands, the complexity of aligning with existing health data privacy regulations like HIPAA, and the need for widespread industry adoption to realize network effects. Ultimately, blockchain is not a panacea but a specialized tool. Its most viable and impactful applications in healthcare management will likely be in areas requiring high-stakes audit trails, provenance verification, and secure multi-party transactions, implemented as part of a hybrid technological architecture rather than as a wholesale replacement for current systems.

Blockchain Technology, Health Data Security, Interoperability, Supply Chain Management, Patient Data Governance, Electronic Health Records, Decentralized Systems, Smart Contracts