JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

In the homecare industry, the assignment and tracking of the care service has been controlled by care centers that are centralized in nature and prone to inefficient information transmission. A lack of trust among the involved parties, information opaqueness, and heavy manual manipulation result in lower process efficiency.

Objective:

This study aims to provide a service innovation using blockchain and smart contract technologies to improve the transparency, traceability, and interoperability of homecare service process.

Methods:

An objected-oriented analysis/design (OOA/OOD) combined with a unified modeling language (UML) tool was used to construct the architecture of the proposed homecare service system. System feasibility was evaluated via an implementation test and a questionnaire survey was administered to collect opinions from respondents with blockchain and smart contract expertize.

Results:

Based on the comparative analysis findings, the proposed design may outperform existing systems in terms of traceability, system efficiency, and process automation. Homecare service participants enjoyed improved decision-making, better transparency, and higher level of process automation.

Conclusions:

Blockchain and smart contracts may provide solutions for the homecare service via distributed data management and process automation. The proposed system enhances user experiences by mitigating human intervention, improving service interoperability, transparency/traceability, and real-time response to homecare service events. Efforts in exploring and integrating blockchain-based homecare service with emerging technologies, such as the internet of things and artificial intelligence, may show potential for further research.