Blockchain Technology for Empowering Patient-Centred Healthcare: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Patient-centred care allows patients to have complete autonomy in managing their health information and encourages patients to be proactive. Unfortunately, most patients do not have access to their complete health information as they are stored across the various institutions that they have visited over their lifetime. The purpose of this paper is to report on an investigation into developing a mobile system for patient-centered healthcare using blockchain technology. A design science research approach was used to design, develop and evaluate a prototype that implemented a three-tier architecture using blockchain. Formative evaluations of the prototype revealed that the system could successfully support patient-managed healthcare. The implications of this project would be changing the way patients and healthcare practitioners interact with each other by improving the quality of clinical encounters by allowing patients access to their health information, sharing the information with healthcare practitioners and both parties collaborating in the development of a treatment plan.