Blockchain, Data Obstruction, and the Promise of Information Sharing for a Value-Based Health Care World

The current system of health care delivery and payment has tremendous inefficiencies that relate to an inability to share data among multiple parties, and from that sharing, glean useful and actionable information that yields higher quality and lower cost care. This “data obstruction syndrome” manifests itself in degraded decision-making in real-time clinical care. It also limits the space where prospective value-based agreements can develop between business entities that have pathway or guideline components. Blockchain technology is in its infancy today in health care, but it will expand rapidly in the future. Use of blockchain can facilitate data flows among multiple parties who do not need to agree...