Private blockchain, explained: What it is, what it isn’t and how to manage your HIPAA expectations

For many healthcare executives, blockchain is more than just hype.

Data silos and interoperability challenges abound in healthcare, and blockchain technology appears to provide a solution, theoretically allowing distinct sources of data to update each other in a decentralized way—without the considerable administrative burden of maintaining up-to-date centralized databases.

But for a blockchain to function this way, the data stored on it must be made public by default—this is how updates spread through the chain. And that’s a problem for the healthcare industry, where many potential use cases involve protected information that cannot be shared without a patient’s consent.