Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Nov 25, 2019
Date Accepted: May 13, 2020
Blockchain in Healthcare: What are the Implications?
ABSTRACT
There has been an increasing interest in blockchain technology from the healthcare sector in the last couple of years. The value proposition for using blockchain technology in the healthcare sector to share sensitive patient data among healthcare entities securely and empower patients. Blockchain technology allows patients to have an active role in developing and updating their own patient data. However, is blockchain technology really the silver bullet it seems to be? Through this paper, we highlight the different aspects of blockchain technology, and we aim to understand how this technology can be used in the healthcare sector. We provide an overview of different blockchain initiatives in healthcare by various countries. We go through various definitions of what constitutes blockchain technology as well as its characteristics, forms, and innovation and security implications. Furthermore, we show there is a need for more use-cases to ensure the secure sharing of data within the healthcare sector. In our opinion, blockchain technology will not solve the issues encountered by the healthcare sector; it may, in fact, raise more issues than it will solve.
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