ABSTRACT
The potential exists for blockchain-based technology to significantly improve the healthcare industry. However, there are challenges posed by the widespread adoption of blockchain-based technology in health care. This chapter begins with a brief refresher of what blockchain technology is and then covers a variety of benefits and challenges to utilizing blockchain, specifically in health care. Among the purported benefits of blockchain is its potential to improve the accuracy and efficiency of medical data collection and sharing. Additional benefits of blockchain within health care are to enable new healthcare-related applications, such as decentralized clinical trials and secure health data storage. Ultimately, the use of blockchain technology in healthcare has the potential to improve patient care while reducing costs and increasing transparency and efficiency across the entire healthcare ecosystem. Challenges that must be resolved to facilitate the widespread adoption of blockchain include addressing concerns with data security and privacy. Other problems plaguing health care that remain challenges for blockchain to overcome include interoperability with existing systems, cost of technology adding to escalating health care costs, scalability, the need for standardization in a highly regulated industry, and the education and training of health care professionals on any emerging technology. Finally, the chapter concludes with prompts for further discussion and application.
