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2 Delphi 52 (2019)
How Blockchain-Based Solutions Impact the Healthcare Sector

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52   | Startup Digest


How Blockchain-based Solutions Impact the

Healthcare Sector

       Anna  Laesser*

       The Startup Digest section introduces startups and grassroots initiatives from around the
       world that push the boundaries ofemerging technologies. Most conversations around emerg-
       ing technologies are stuck in silos and are quite hyped, making it hard to understand their
       actual impact on businesses, society and governance. The Startup Digests aim to demystify
       what is happening on the ground by establishing a discourse via case studies and interviews
       with startups and grassroots initiatives. Each edition will take a critical look on how these
       movements   apply emerging  technologies to achieve a specific purpose -facilitating a dis-
       course that makes the (new) thinking, the approach and potential impact become more  tan-
       gible.

       This edition takes a closer look at how blockchain-based solutions affect the healthcare in-
       dustry. Three case studies have been selected to exemplify how blockchain can potentially
       transform healthcare  supply chain, patient data management,   and access to health care.
       Each case study will be critically analysed to identify the potentials, challenges and risks.


1. Introduction

The  healthcare industry is transforming. New and
more  efficient healthcare record systems are being
developed, artificial intelligence and big data is be-
ing utilised to improve medical examinations  and
predict disease, wearable devices are integrated to
track a patient's health and discussions around high-
ly controversial genetic engineering are being held.'
However, the digitalization of healthcare faces a com-
mon  challenge: moving data between multiple stake-
holders within a health supply chain. The incorrupt-
ible  distributed ledger  technology,  known   as
Blockchain, could offer a way to redesign the infor
mation  architecture and potentially enable data in-
tegrity, transparency and security - as well as new
business models.2  According  to a study commis-
sioned by IBM, around 16%  of healthcare executives
are determined  to implement  blockchain solutions
this year, while around  56%   expected  to adopt
blockchain by the year 2020.'
   This Startup Digest consists of three case studies
that will reveal the diversity of blockchain-based ap-
proaches in healthcare and how they are being used
to rethink data access, data ownership and analytics.
To reflect the buzz in this novel field, the selected


projects are in different levels of development, name-
ly a blockchain technology company  (1), a research
project supported by the MIT Media Lab (2), and an
early stage startup (3). The following section will
analyse the  context, potential and risks of each
blockchain-based solution and  draw some   conclu-
sions.
   The three case studies are:

1) Guardtime Health: A blockchain system for a con-
   nected healthcare supply chain (Estonia, Nether
   lands, United Kingdom;  blockchain  technology
   company)




   DOI: 10.21552/delphi/2019/1/11
   Anna Laesser, Co-founder at Impact Hub Berlin. For correspon-
   dence: <anna.aesser@impacthub.berlin>
1  David Roberts, '10 ways digital could transform healthcare'
   (2018)<https://www.ey.com/en-gl/digital/0-ways-digital-could
   -transform-healthcare> accessed 1 March 2019.
2  Lisk Academy, 'Blockchain inHealthcare' (2018)<https://lisk.io/
   academy/blockchain-basics/use-cases/blockchain-healthcare> ac-
   cessed 1 March 2019.
3  Constantin Yukhymenko, 'What are the use cases for blockchain
   tech inhealthcare?' (2018) <https://www.quora.com/What-are
   -the-use-cases-for-blockchain-tech-in-healthcare/answer/
   Constantin-Yukhymenko> >accessed1IMarch 2019.


Delphi 1|2019

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