Resistance to Blockchain Adoption in Health Care Organizations: Evidence From a Cross-Sectional Study

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Information Security
• Technology Adoption

Background:

• Traditional healthcare systems face challenges in securing sensitive medical data.
• Blockchain technology offers enhanced security for medical data management and transactions.
• Hesitancy in adopting blockchain applications stems from perceived risks within healthcare organizations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the adoption of blockchain-based healthcare applications using a risk-based approach.
• To develop a research model based on perceived risk theory (PRT) linking specific risks to adoption intention.
• To extend PRT by incorporating blockchain-specific risks for healthcare contexts.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study design utilizing online questionnaires for IT professionals in Canadian and African healthcare organizations.
• Structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) to test hypothesized relationships.
• Sample size of 194 valid responses, exceeding minimum requirements for robust statistical analysis.

Main Results:

• Perceived risk significantly influences the intention to adopt blockchain-based healthcare apps in Canadian organizations, but not in African ones.
• Key risks identified include medical data disclosure and loss of control over data.
• Availability of cloud-based blockchain solutions was found to reduce perceived risks associated with resource limitations.

Conclusions:

• Perceived Risk Theory (PRT) was extended to include blockchain-specific risks, offering a framework for future research on technology adoption reluctance.
• Contextual factors in Canada and Africa significantly influence the relationship between perceived risks and adoption intentions.
• Findings provide actionable insights for governments, healthcare organizations, and blockchain developers to mitigate adoption barriers.