Healthcare Trend #1: Blockchain Moves from Theory to Practice

As a company situated at the intersection of healthcare and technology, we closely track the trends that impact both. This year, we decided to share our thoughts with you. Much of what follows is based on our unique position in the market providing services to some of the fastest growing and successful companies in healthcare.

First up, Healthcare on the Blockchain Moves from Theory to Practice. Learn more about what we expect to happen in 2017 below and be sure to read the full piece.

The buzz surrounding blockchain hit a fever pitch in 2016, but it wasn't supported by much in the way of real world examples. That will change in 2017, as academic and theoretical discussions give way to production-ready applications. In our regular interactions with innovators from healthcare systems, healthcare device and wearable companies, to finance and professional services firms, we're seeing that the groundwork for healthcare on the blockchain has already begun.

As context, blockchain is a highly secure network coupled with a distributed database, also known as a distributed ledger. This ledger is used to record the network's transactions with reliable time stamps and standardized rules for all participants on the network to verify and access information.

"There's one more lesson to draw from the early days of the internet. If you had understood in 1995 the opportunities and threats it would ultimately present to your company or industry, what would you have done differently--to become the disrupter rather than the disrupted? That is where we are with blockchain today."

- Ginni Rometty, President and CIO of IBM

Why will the shift from talk to action take place this year? Find out in our latest white paper.

And stay tuned for Trend #2: Demand Drives Adoption of Healthcare E-commerce on the blog next week.

Image by: Blockchain Technologies