Wong Ming Chao, Yee Kwang Chien, Nøhr Christian
School of Engineering and ICT, University of Tasmania.
School of Medicine, University of Tasmania.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2018;247:636-640.
Blockchain technology is often considered as the fourth industrial revolution that will change the world. The enthusiasm of the transformative nature of blockchain technology has infiltrated healthcare. Blockchain is often seen as the much needed and perfect technology for healthcare, addressing the difficult and complex issues of security and inter-operability. More importantly, the "value" and trust-based system can deliver automated action and response via its smart contract mechanism. Healthcare, however, is a complex system. Health information technology (HIT) so far, has not delivered its promise of transforming healthcare due to its complex socio-technical and context sensitive interaction. The introduction of blockchain technology will need to consider a whole range of socio-technical issues in order to improve the quality and safety of patient care. This paper presents a discussion on these socio-technical issues. More importantly, this paper argues that in order to achieve the best outcome from blockchain technology, there is a need to consider a clinical transformation from "information" to "value " and trust. This paper argues that urgent research is needed to address these socio-technical issues in order to facilitate best outcomes for blockchain in healthcare. These socio-technical issues must then be further evaluated by means of working prototypes in the medical domain in coming years.
区块链技术常被视为将改变世界的第四次工业革命。对区块链技术变革性质的热情已渗透到医疗保健领域。区块链常被视为医疗保健领域迫切需要且完美的技术，可解决安全和互操作性方面的难题与复杂问题。更重要的是，基于“价值”和信任的系统可通过其智能合约机制实现自动行动和响应。然而，医疗保健是一个复杂的系统。到目前为止，健康信息技术（HIT）由于其复杂的社会技术和上下文敏感交互，尚未兑现其变革医疗保健的承诺。区块链技术的引入需要考虑一系列社会技术问题，以提高患者护理的质量和安全性。本文对这些社会技术问题进行了讨论。更重要的是，本文认为，为了从区块链技术中获得最佳结果，需要考虑从“信息”到“价值”和信任的临床转变。本文认为，迫切需要开展研究来解决这些社会技术问题，以便为医疗保健领域的区块链实现最佳结果。接下来几年必须通过医疗领域的工作原型对这些社会技术问题进行进一步评估。
