Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Mar 5, 2020
Date Accepted: Oct 26, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Different perspectives of patients, healthcare professionals, and developers towards blockchain-based health information exchange: A qualitative research
ABSTRACT
Background:
Although electronic health record (EHR) system adoption rate has reached 96% in US, implementation and usage of health information exchange (HIE) is still lagging behind. Blockchain is in the spotlight as a technology to solve the problem. However, there have been no studies on different perspectives of stakeholders regarding blockchain based patient-centered HIE.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to analyze the awareness among patients, healthcare professionals, and IT developers towards blockchain-based HIE and compare their different perspectives on the platform based upon qualitative research methodology.
Methods:
In this qualitative study, we applied grounded theory and the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in the Health Service (PARiHS) framework. We interviewed patients, physicians, and developers consist of seven participants respectively, for a total of 21 interviewees.
Results:
Regarding the leakage of health information, the patient group did not have concerns unlike physician and developer groups. Physicians were especially concerned about the fact that errors in the data cannot be easily fixed due to the nature of blockchain technology. Patients were not against idea of providing information for clinical trial or research institutions. They wished to be provided with the results of clinical research rather than the compensation for providing the data. The developers emphasized that the blockchain must be technically mature before it can be applied to the healthcare scene, and standards of medical information to be exchanged must be established first. The three groups' perceptions of blockchain were generally positive.
Conclusions:
The result of the study will be the grounds for developing a blockchain platform which can be utilized in the actual healthcare environment.
Citation
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Copyright
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