Etwaru, speaking at the New York Academy of Science, asserted that healthcare had been “underperforming as an industry,” and that blockchain would provide “massive acceleration within the sector” over the next 25 years. Specifically, he said the technology would go a long way toward “building a patient-centric healthcare system where a person’s entire lifecycle and journey is tracked through this system, while giving control on how their data is used and how it’s shared while they have full access and are in charge of their data.”
It’s now six years later. While we can safely say that blockchain has not yet revolutionized the industry, there is evidence that it will in fact lead to greater efficiency, with additional prospects in the future. While in 2018, some $170 million was spent on healthcare blockchain, that outlay is expected to increase to $5.61 billion by 2025, according to BIS Research. Moreover, there is the expectation that such technology could save the healthcare industry up to $100 billion per year by 2025.
Blockchain can help deal with issues like interoperability, a matter that is of the utmost importance in the healthcare sector. It can improve supply chain management, enable data from clinical trials to be handled more securely and efficiently, and impact the insurance sector and even ensure medication adherence.
In short, Etwaru appears to have been right: it will change the face of the industry.
Blockchain is most often associated with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (though in reality, it is far more widely used). It is a decentralized, tamper-proof, secure digital ledger that makes it possible to document data and transactions. And as it pertains to interoperability, it can help break the silos that so often exist in healthcare, enabling all parties in the care chain to access information.
Blockchain is akin to a digital spreadsheet—one that is highly encrypted but can be viewed by all the computers in a given network….
