Blockchain technology (BT) is quietly transforming the world, from
financial infrastructure, to the internet-of-things, to healthcare
applications. With increasing penetration of BT into various areas of
our daily lives, the need arises for better awareness and greater
knowledge about the capabilities, benefits, risks, and alternatives to
distributed ledger applications. It is hoped that current book will be
one of the pioneering collections focusing on blockchain implementations
in the area of healthcare, with specific aim to present content in an
easy-to-understand and readily accessible way for typical end-users of
blockchain-based applications. There are important areas within the
fabric of modern healthcare that stand to benefit from implementations
of BT. These areas include electronic medical records, quality control,
patient safety, finance, device tracking, biostamping/biocertification,
redundant storage of critical data, health and liability insurance,
medication utilization tracking (including opioid and antibiotic
misuse), financial transactions, academics/education, asset
tokenization, public health and pandemics, healthcare provider
credentialing, and many other potential applications. The ultimate goal
of the proposed book would be to provide an integrative,
easy-to-understand, and comprehensive picture of the current state of
blockchain use in healthcare while actively engaging the reader in a
forward-looking, exploratory approach toward future developments in this
space. To accomplish this goal, an expert panel of contributors has been
assembled, featuring scholars from top global universities and
think-tanks.
