Preface

We now find ourselves at the crossroads of two powerful forces: Blockchain technology, in a never-ending Renaissance landscape of the technology and healthcare industries, and the strong demand for increased integrity, security, and compliance in data stored in health systems. The idea of this book is to venture through this intersection, where immutability and decentralization provided by the blockchain will pave new ways to reshape our strategies to manage, secure, and interact with healthcare data. With greater detail, the content of this book begins with an introduction to blockchain and how it may revolutionize healthcare, followed by an in-depth discussion of its applications across a host of domains. The following chapters provide the entire discussion about the role of blockchain in data integrity and increased compliance with regulatory standards while at the same time protecting sensitive health information. The book itself goes into detail about how blockchain is reframing the healthcare industry through documented case studies, theoretical explorations, and implementation in real-life situations. For sure, the first few chapters make a good point in building a base for discussion on the basics of blockchain technology and its potential to provide solutions for some of the most important problems concerning data transparency, traceability, and security. This is also a way to show how interoperability for health information exchange can be safely achieved by using the blockchain, which drastically changes the way patient data is shared and consumed between different providers and various healthcare institutions.

In the following sections, we detail specific applications of blockchain technology in improving smart contracts' functionality within the healthcare compliance framework, building patient-centric data management systems, and detecting fraud in clinical trials. In each one of these cases, extensive case studies and real-life examples explain to the readers practical insights into the challenges and successes faced in the journey of adopting blockchain in healthcare. Later in this book, blockchain is woven with other emerging technologies, such as the IoT and AI, to illustrate the broad set of applied solutions that will take this a step beyond in upgrading security and efficiency within connected healthcare systems. The chapters also indicate that it will have the potential to enable an advanced data analytics capability ranging from monitoring patients outside the hospital to securely sharing health data across complex networks.

The last two are more future-facing, an indication of what could be the future of blockchain in healthcare. We then discuss the regulations that are in a state of flux, potential issues around scalability and interoperability, and blockchain as an enabler of novel business models and healthcare solutions. In view of these future trends, the book will lead the reader on a knowledgeable and foreseeing journey of the ongoing transformation in the healthcare industry.

While discussed from a more technical perspective in this book, it is an appeal to all healthcare professionals, technologists, policymakers, and researchers to recognize the potential of blockchain and work together to make the future healthcare ecosystem more secure, transparent, and efficient.