Graduate Institute of Technology Management, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.
J Med Internet Res. 2020 Aug 31;22(8):e19480. doi: 10.2196/19480.
Blockchain technology is leveraging its innovative potential in various sectors and its transformation of business-related processes has drawn much attention. Topics of research interest have focused on medical and health care applications, while research implications have generally concluded in system design, literature reviews, and case studies. However, a general overview and knowledge about the impact on the health care ecosystem is limited.
This paper explores a potential paradigm shift and ecosystem evolution in health care utilizing blockchain technology.
A literature review with a case study on a pioneering initiative was conducted. With a systematic life cycle analysis, this study sheds light on the evolutionary development of blockchain in health care scenarios and its interactive relationship among stakeholders.
Four stages-birth, expansion, leadership, and self-renewal or death-in the life cycle of the business ecosystem were explored to elucidate the evolving trajectories of blockchain-based health care implementation. Focused impacts on the traditional health care industry are highlighted within each stage to further support the potential health care paradigm shift in the future.
This paper enriches the existing body of literature in this field by illustrating the potential of blockchain in fulfilling stakeholders' needs and elucidating the phenomenon of coevolution within the health care ecosystem. Blockchain not only catalyzes the interactions among players but also facilitates the formation of the ecosystem life cycle. The collaborative network linked by blockchain may play a critical role on value creation, transfer, and sharing among the health care community. Future efforts may focus on empirical or case studies to validate the proposed evolution of the health care ecosystem.
区块链技术正在各个领域发挥其创新潜力，其对商业相关流程的变革引起了广泛关注。研究热点集中在医疗和保健应用上，而研究意义通常集中在系统设计、文献综述和案例研究上。然而，对于区块链对医疗保健生态系统的影响，人们的总体认识和了解有限。
本文探讨了区块链技术在医疗保健领域中可能带来的范式转变和生态系统演进。
进行了文献回顾，并对一个开创性举措进行了案例研究。通过系统的生命周期分析，本研究揭示了区块链在医疗保健场景中的演进发展及其与利益相关者之间的互动关系。
探讨了商业生态系统生命周期中的四个阶段——诞生、扩张、领导和自我更新或死亡，以阐明基于区块链的医疗保健实施的演进轨迹。在每个阶段都强调了对传统医疗保健行业的重点影响，以进一步支持未来潜在的医疗保健范式转变。
本文通过说明区块链在满足利益相关者需求方面的潜力以及阐明医疗保健生态系统内的共同进化现象，丰富了该领域的现有文献。区块链不仅促进了参与者之间的互动，还促进了生态系统生命周期的形成。由区块链链接的协作网络可能在医疗保健社区的价值创造、转移和共享方面发挥关键作用。未来的研究可以集中在实证或案例研究上，以验证所提出的医疗保健生态系统的演进。
