A Survey of Blockchain Applications in Healthcare Delivery

ABSTRACT:

Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger for recording transactions, tracking assets and building trust. It is a distributed tamper-proof database, shared, and maintained by multiple parties. It is a new enabling technology that is expected to revolutionize many industries, including healthcare. The dramatic increase in blockchain technology has provided many new application opportunities, including healthcare applications. It has the potential for addressing significant healthcare issues. The blockchain technology allows participants to exchange data in real-time, without exposing the channels to theft, forgery and malice. This survey provides a comprehensive review of emerging blockchain based healthcare technologies and related applications. Among the reviewed technical papers, interest is paid to papers that present or discuss blockchain-based prototype applications that have been developed to solve healthcare problems. The inquiry attends to the open research matters in this fast-growing field, explaining them in detail. Results of the survey show the benefits and drawback of the existing blockchain-based healthcare applications and guidelines for future investigation and open issues about blockchain based health applications. The potential of blockchain technology in revolutionizing healthcare industry is shown.

Keywords: Blockchain, Healthcare, Internet of medical things, Medicine, Security.