Navigating between possibility and reality: An assessment of blockchain's potential for the Dutch healthcare sector

Abstract

Blockchain technology promises to revolutionise how different entities transact and interact and is regarded as the most promising innovation since the advent of the Internet. Discussions about blockchain’s relevance have largely concentrated on financial applications, such a Bitcoin. This thesis examines blockchain’s potential for the Dutch healthcare sector. Using a constructive technology assessment combined with a vision assessment, two guiding visions are identified that show blockchain’s potential to make the healthcare sector more efficient and more personalised. However, blockchain is accompanied by substantial hype which raises concerns because many technical, organisational and societal barriers have to fall before blockchain can fulfil its promises. Technology developers, project managers, consultants, patients, medical professionals, health insurers and policy makers reflected on the use of blockchain for the healthcare sector and identified of the following that might hinder the implementation of the guiding visions: Interoperability, conservative culture, hype, incumbent power, misconceptions by non-experts, privacy and security, disruption of power structures and relationships and lack of evidence. Blockchain is still in an early phase of development. However, as the healthcare industry is becoming more dedicated to solve interoperability issues, small blockchain experiments, which include users early on and built in privacy-be-design, may find sufficient support from healthcare stakeholders to become successful. Because blockchain is economically scalable, profitable experiments can grow into complex ecosystems over time, which could transform the healthcare sector into a more sustainable system.