Blockchain in Healthcare: Opportunities, Challenges, and Possible Solutions

Abstract

Blockchain, an immutable ledger or database shared by peers in a network, is comprised of records of events or transactions that are appended chronologically. Introduced via Bitcoin to the world, blockchain is increasingly being accepted and adopted in different industries and for diverse use cases. Among key industries, health care offers several significant opportunities for applying blockchain conceptualization. Chief areas for health care blockchain applications include electronic medical records management, pharmaceutical supply chain management, biomedical research and education, remote patient monitoring, health insurance claim processing, and health data analytics. Even so, applying blockchain concepts in health care is not without challenges, including interoperability, security-privacy, scalability-speed, and stakeholders' engagement issues. While these challenges may militate against blockchain applications in health care, there are possible countermeasures and implementation techniques, which if adhered to, can reasonably contain many aspects of such challenges.