According to a new Black Book survey, 93 percent of managed care organization respondents and 70 percent of hospital respondents report respectively that blockchain shows soaring promise for healthcare interoperability. Conducted in Q3, Black Book surveyed 88 healthcare payers and 276 provider technology executives, managers and IT specialists on their comprehension of healthcare blockchain solutions and their level of organizational investment interest.
What is Blockchain?
First described in a 2008 pseudonymous paper by Satoshi Nakamoto, Blockchain technology is an open, continuous, and secure ledger stored online that can’t be altered. Users can make transactions on blockchain and share information among multiple stakeholders, recording transactions between parties efficiently and in a verifiable, permanent way.
Health IT Interoperability Enabled by Blockchain
The survey reveals that 90 percent of medical group managers and IT specialists agree that blockchain may resolve and expedite most concerns of connectivity, privacy and patient record sharing. Health IT interoperability enabled by blockchain has the capability to transfer relevant patient data from one provider to another no matter the location or the providers’ particular EHR.
Healthcare Blockchain Awareness Rising
Black Book reveals that 19 percent of responding hospital executives and 76 percent of payers were either considering deploying, or were in the process of implementing some blockchain solution sets. Increase in blockchain awareness was marked by 29 percent of hospital leaders and 82 percent of health insurance executives having a working understanding of blockchain in Q3 2017.
Other key findings of the survey include:
– 98 percent of survey-responding payers with plans of 500,000+ members are actively considering deploying or were in the process of deploying blockchain with 14 percent involved in trial deployments in some form currently.
– 70 percent of all size payer organizations expected blockchain to be integrated into their systems by Q1 2019 but only 9 percent of provider health organizations and systems have firm plans to implement blockchain by Q2 2018.
– The undetermined cost of blockchain solutions causes 88 percent of provider leadership respondents from committing to a time frame or anticipated deadline for deploying the technology.
– The top mentioned healthcare blockchain vendors by respondents include: Pokitdok, Tieron, Youbase, Bloq, Guardtime, Bust IQ, Healthcombix, Blockchain Health, IBM Blockchain and Hashed Health.
“The most popular connectivity strategy circulating among health care technologists, and even ONC, is blockchain technology,” said Doug Brown, Managing Partner at Black Book Rankings in a statement. “The lack of technical standards for this still-immature technology is causing regulatory uncertainty while the industry anticipates explanations from federal rules at some point in 2018.”
Photo by NEC Corporation of America with Creative Commons license.
