Mbuso Mabuza
We live in an era of the digital health revolution where technological and knowledge breakthroughs greatly enhance the care we deliver to patients. However, our healthcare system still holds many friction points.This book examines cases where Blockchain can be a leverage to address some of healthcare’s biggest challenges. Blockchain technology, sometimes considered as the next industrial revolution is rapidly gaining traction in the healthcare industry as one of the most exciting technological developments. It is capable of transforming the healthcare and medical ecosystem with its features, which include decentralisation, anonymity, persistency, transparency, quality, reduced cost and auditability. In particular, blockchain technology presents numerous opportunities for the healthcare industry such as reduced transaction costs, increased transparency for regulatory reporting, efficient healthcare data management and healthcare records universally. This will potentially shift the focus to patients.However, there are still several open challenges such as cross-border sharing of health data where different and often conflicting jurisdictions exist may hinder the benefit of blockchain’s data sharing. Another potential problem that is under-researched and needs further investigation is the capability of the blockchain to store and process massive data access transactions in a timely manner.The main problem that needs attention from researchers is how the blockchain will operate in complex and diverse communication systems. There is need for further research on innovative solutions that promote blockchain as a service that allows various parties such as networks, devices, users of the Internet of Things paradigm to access basic coherent blockchain infrastructures.
