Blockchain Technology - Current Status and Future Research Opportunities in Various Areas of Healthcare Industry

Abstract

Purpose: Blockchain technology is one of the emerging Information Communication and Computation (ICCT) underlying technologies of the 21st century with potential applications in primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary industry sectors. In this paper, we have identified and analyzed some of the potential fields of the healthcare industry that can get benefit by means of using blockchain technology principles. Based on a systematic review on the development of blockchain technology and its application in healthcare sector to improve the quality of healthcare services, this paper identifies some of the application areas in the healthcare industry including Healthcare Security & Authentication aspects, Clinical Trials & Precision Medicine, Personalizing the Healthcare Services, Healthcare Data Management, Strengthening Public Health Surveillance, e-Healthcare to Customers, Healthcare Administration & Medicine Management, Telehealth & Telemedicine, Managing Medical Imaging, Developing Smart Healthcare System, and Healthcare Information System. The purpose also includes the analysis of the current implementation challenges of blockchain technology in healthcare industry services. Methodology: The study is descriptive and exploratory in nature. The related information is collected from various secondary sources for review. The secondary sources include published literature from various scholarly journals searched through Google scholar by means of identified keywords. Results/Findings: Based on a systematic review, we have identified the current status of the use of blockchain in several areas of healthcare sector, desired status called ideal status, and the research gap of use of blockchain technology in various application areas of the healthcare industry along with identification of various possible research agendas for future research. Originality/Value: It is found that blockchain technology facilitates for the improvement of quality services in the healthcare sector and various research agendas are proposed to carry out further research for patient satisfaction and comfortability. Type of the Paper: Review based research analysis.

Blockchain Based Privacy and Security Across Cloud in Electric Vehicle Application for Sustainable Development in Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

“…The primary purpose of a blockchain application is to maintain a record of all of the transactions that have been made by the various members of the network [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. After the submitted transactions have been confirmed and arranged, a block is formed, and the outcomes of the transactions are put on the blockchain as transaction results.…”

Unleashing Competitive Intelligence: News Mining Analysis on Technology Trends and Digital Health Driving Healthcare Innovation

“…In the realm of blockchain technology, the third chart highlights the prevalence of telehealth as the top category. The integration of blockchain technology for health services is still in its early stages of adoption, as there are still challenges to be faced, such as data security and data interoperability across healthcare systems [108], as reflected in categories such as RWD/RWE and precision medicine appear to have limited representation. This raises questions about the potential benefits and challenges of incorporating blockchain in healthcare contexts that rely heavily on real-world evidence and precision medicine.…”

Investors Behavioural Intention of Cryptocurrency Adoption – A Review based Research Agenda

“…(1) Because bitcoin is based on blockchain technology [119][120][121][122], technological adoption among cryptocurrency investors must be examined.…”