This is the third, concluding publication in the series ‘Blockchain in Healthcare’ by Leo Petersen-Khmelnitski. It lists some trends in blockchain adoption by global healthcare, looks briefly into potential gains of these efforts in the future, and touches upon some present challenges.

Trends and Potential Gains

The list below is non-exhaustive, it specifies the main points only in the present development, that are on the rise and are expected to gain momentum in the time span of one to three years.

MORE PROJECTS IN SUPPLY CHAIN

Optimisation of supply chain, such as provenance tracking, brings immediate monetisation and clear by relevant stakeholders. We may see more such projects in the near future in all areas related to production and distribution of healthcare related products and adjacent services.

MORE INTEGRATION WITH AI, IOT, HYBRID CLOUD

Blockchain may be increasingly employed to provide an immutable infrastructure to health related databases and registries, where data shared by IoT devices may be analysed by AI. Also, blockchain may be more often combined with hybrid cloud solutions for compliance with personal data protection legislations.

FASTER GROWTH IN EMERGING MARKETS

Emerging economies are blockchain focused to a greater degree than established ones, emerging healthcare markets are likely to increase infrastructural investment in blockchain in 2022. Asian, manufacturing-oriented economies may receive direct benefits from blockchain adoptions. Examples: the Chinese national blockchain, the UAE blockchain strategy. In Europe, the Estonian example of blockchain adoption on a national scale is known.

EXPANSION OF EXISTING CONSORTIA

2019 saw formation of industry alliances and consortia, 2021 witnessed further expansion of these groups. Two main drivers serve this development: 

– The network effect (value increases with the size of the network). Adding new members extends credibility and competitive edge.

– More providers to join the existing consortia, that are currently dominated by large health plans providers and pharma manufacturers

MORE REAL USE CASES

Though we have seen and still see presentations of numerous potential use cases, the industry is likely to focus on use cases for data and business processes with a lower risk, due to a very high degree of data sensitivity. Such real use cases may concentrate around data management (especially automation of data validation) and credentialing of healthcare providers, as they require less sophisticated use of the technology. Advanced smart contracts may arrive to the global healthcare sector.

MORE INTEROPERABILITY

A significant number of healthcare initiatives need to operate on a national or on international scales, and across various blockchain protocols. Interoperability has been a major topic of discussion in many relevant industrial work groups, such as Hyperledger Work Group on Public Health. These efforts are expected to bring results in the near term future.

TOKENISATION OF HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Prophylactics is cheaper than treatment, but prior to prophylactics blockchain tokens (also known as engagement, or reward tokens) may provide motivation to maintain healthy and even environmentally responsible lifestyles. Such projects may be first launched at a grass root or a local community level, to encompass societies as a whole.

Challenges

There are several challenges related to privacy, security, and interoperability.

First, health data are highly privacy-sensitive, especially as more data is being stored in a public cloud, raising the risks of data exposure. The second challenge (various security related issues) originates in the very nature of centralised trust. Third, the effective integration of health data and the interoperability between healthcare systems remain a challenging task. A related challenge is that users have little control over their personal health data.