Blockchain Technology May (Eventually) Fix Healthcare: Just Don’t Hold Your Breath

There is a common fallacy that every new technology that skitters across the healthcare plain will have an earth-shattering, and short-term, positive impact on the healthcare system writ large. In fact, when attending the Health Information Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) annual meeting, you see a vast and growing number of service providers addressing some healthcare-technology need, whether far-reaching, niche, real, or imagined, in the healthcare space. From artificial intelligence (AI) to machine learning to blockchain to care management, the healthcare horizon is rife with new technologies. But these solutions seldom deliver immediate applications or success. Look at IBM Watson’s highly publicized venture into the delivery of cancer-care services. Internal IBM documents showed “multiple examples of unsafe and incorrect treatment...