Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Sep 13, 2023
Date Accepted: Feb 7, 2024
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Decentralizing Healthcare: The History and Opportunities of Web3
ABSTRACT
This manuscript explores the transformative potential of Web3 technology in healthcare, drawing parallels between the evolution of the internet and shifts in healthcare paradigms. As a decentralized technological framework, Web3 offers opportunities to resolve persistent challenges like patient data ownership, interoperability, and system inefficiencies. By examining early Web3 use cases and current healthcare models, the paper argues that Web3 can revolutionize the healthcare landscape by empowering patients with personal data ownership, enhancing security and privacy, and enabling more efficient and equitable care delivery. However, effective implementation will require grappling with key questions related to privacy, change management, equity, cost, and policy regulations. The manuscript concludes that a multi-stakeholder approach is essential for leveraging Web3's full transformative potential in creating a more patient-centric healthcare system.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.