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Applications of Blockchain in the Medical Field: Narrative Review
Yi Xie1,2, Jiayao Zhang1,2, Honglin Wang1,2
1Department of Orthopedics Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Blockchain technology offers secure, decentralized health care solutions, improving electronic health records and empowering patient data control. This review summarizes key medical use cases and challenges for future blockchain integration in healthcare.
Area of Science:
- Blockchain technology applications in the medical industry.
- Integration of blockchain with emerging technologies in healthcare.
Background:
- Blockchain's distributed nature attracts medical industry attention.
- Few studies focus on actual blockchain use-case scenarios in healthcare.
- COVID-19 outbreak spurred new ideas for blockchain in medical practice.
Purpose of the Study:
- Systematic review of current and projected blockchain uses in healthcare.
- Identify future research directions for blockchain in medical practice.
- Discuss blockchain framework, application scenarios, and integration with other technologies.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of studies from PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, IEEE, and Springer.
- Combined search terms related to blockchain and healthcare.
- Independent review of relevant papers for inclusion and summarization of key medical scenarios.
Main Results:
- 1647 studies identified, 60 unique studies included in the review.
- Summarized medical scenarios based on blockchain's technical characteristics and application scenarios.
- Identified challenges including privacy, system efficiency, security, and regulatory policy.
Conclusions:
- Blockchain enhances healthcare services through decentralization, tamper-proofing, transparency, and security.
- Potential for long-term benefits via integration with other emerging technologies.
- Secures electronic health records, empowers patient data control, and establishes medical responsibility.
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