IBM Research: 16% of healthcare companies plan to deploy blockchain business use cases in 2017 (Download the full research report)

More than 16% of healthcare companies are ready to deploy blockchain business use cases in 2017.

The IBM Business Value Institute recently released a report titled "Healthcare rallies for Blockchains" (download the full text of the Coin Library). The report shows that 16% of healthcare executives pointed out that their blockchain experimentation phase has ended and the next step is to deploy commercial use cases.

IBM's survey involved 200 large medical companies around the world, who shared their views on blockchain technology and their initial deployment strategies for the technology in 2017.

The report was published by IBM researchers and the Economist Intelligence Unit. They wrote:

We found that 16% of the companies surveyed are moving beyond experimentation and are looking to commercialize blockchain solutions in 2017. These pioneers are leading the charge for real-world use cases for blockchain and are looking to break down barriers to adoption by providing access to up-to-date, trusted information while keeping data secure and entering new markets.

Blockchain ensures data security

Over the past decade, the healthcare industry has experienced a number of serious hacking and data breaches, resulting in the loss of millions of consumer data and sensitive customer information. The types of data stolen in the attacks include financial information and personal privacy data, which hackers are likely to use to blackmail and demand ransom from consumers.

To further prevent potential attacks and data loss, medical companies have begun to move from traditional IT architecture to blockchain technology. They hope to use this unchangeable and transparent ledger to safely lock user data while allowing all network participants to obtain the required information in real time.

Medical companies are particularly interested in the way blockchain stores transaction data. All transaction histories are settled and stored before new transactions are opened. Network users can take advantage of this unique advantage of blockchain to view the settlement progress of other transactions while obtaining a single transaction.

Since fee settlement is the core business of the medical blockchain, data protection has become a top priority. Therefore, medical companies are likely to replace traditional transaction data with customer data, so that other institutions and related organizations can directly obtain customer data history on the blockchain.

The researchers added:

How valuable it would be if a person's medical history could be fully recorded! How great it would be if all the important data such as the medicines taken, the doctor's orders, the diagnosis and treatment process, etc. could be recorded accurately and efficiently! The level and coordination of medical care can be improved, and the cost and risk will be significantly reduced.