A Prescription for Blockchain in Health Care

Among the industries in which expectations for blockchain technology run high, health care holds a leading position. And there are a number of good reasons for its prominence. Health care is complex and data intensive. The industry has lots of players. Currently, health care transactions are slow, cumbersome, and expensive. Constraints on access to critical data sets limit progress in research. Data privacy is a big deal. Data security can be a life-or-death matter.

Many industry experts and analysts point to blockchain—the technology that underlies Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies—as a possible solution for some of the biggest issues that health care faces. They predict powerful new capabilities and a potentially massive disruption of current approaches...