Blockchain in Healthcare: Insights on COVID-19

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Sep 30;17(19):7167. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17197167.

Abstract

The SARS-CoV2 pandemic has impacted risk management globally. Blockchain has been increasingly applied to healthcare management, as a strategic tool to strengthen operative protocols and to create the proper basis for an efficient and effective evidence-based decisional process. We aim to validate blockchain in healthcare, and to suggest a trace-route for a COVID19-safe clinical practice. The use of blockchain in combination with artificial intelligence systems allows the creation of a generalizable predictive system that could contribute to the containment of pandemic risk on national territory. A SWOT analysis of the adoption of a blockchain-based prediction model in healthcare and SARS-CoV-2 infection has been carried out to underline opportunities and limits to its adoption. Blockchain could play a strategic role in future digital healthcare: specifically, it may work to improve COVID19-safe clinical practice. The main concepts, and particularly those related to clinical workflow, obtainable from different blockchain-based models have been reported here and critically discussed.

Keywords: COVID-19; artificial intelligence; blockchain; global health; healthcare management.

MeSH terms

  • Artificial Intelligence*
  • Betacoronavirus
  • Blockchain*
  • COVID-19
  • Coronavirus Infections*
  • Delivery of Health Care / organization & administration*
  • Humans
  • Pandemics*
  • Pneumonia, Viral*
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Workflow