Dive Brief:
- Blockchain continues to create buzz, with 74% of respondents in Deloitte's global survey citing a "compelling business case" for the use of technology in their organizations.
- Of these, 43% say their organization is already implementing blockchain in some way, while 41% plan to see the blockchain application within the next year.
- However, while more than half (59%) of early adopters believe that blockchain may shut down its industry, many see few instances of active use currently to meet this promise.
Dive Insight:
The survey included 10 global industries and three economic regions. Health and life sciences included 16% of respondents.
Organizations that already exploit digital technologies as a business strategy are adopting blockchain faster than traditional business organizations, but traditional ones are also raising blockchain mail in the hope that they will increase efficiency and support new business models and sources of revenue, according to the report.
The interest in the blockchain is high and companies do not want to be left behind if valid use cases are identified. Nearly 40% of respondents say their organization will invest at least $ 5 million in blockchain technology next year
At the same time, 44% of respondents believe that the blockchain is overhyped, from 34% of the Deloitte survey in 2016 , and there are complaints about "blockchain fatigue", the report says.
And although a majority (78%) of organizations fear losing competitive advantage if they ignore blockchain mania, a third question is whether they will see a return on investment in technology.
The results reflect current actions in the healthcare sector, where companies are proceeding with blockchain projects despite uncertainty about likely long-term use and long-term benefits.
In January, the startup supported by the American Medical Association Akiri launched a tool independent of the manufacturer that uses blockchain technology to securely transmit health information using codes. Recently, Walmart obtained a US patent for a system of medical records that would be stored in a blockchain database and retrieved by first responders in the event of an emergency.
And Mount Sinai & # 39; s Icahn School of Medicine and Institute for Next Generation Healthcare have established a new dedicated research center to explore potential applications for blockchain in health and medical science.
Given its ability to improve interoperability, the Internet Data Corporation predicts that one in five of the healthcare organizations will use blockchain technology for operations and patient identification by 2020. But other use cases, such as encouraging patients to exchange data and optimize the quality and management of administrative data are largely conceptual at this stage, said Healthcare Dive Mutaz Shegewi, an analyst at IDC and the author of the report.
"Blockchain essentially brings with it some properties that could … be able to free up a lot of untapped value and the logic of this kind of silenced data reserves that we see in health systems," Shegewi said. Since health care must increasingly respond to a broader context – patients, families, the consumer demand for experiences – "this is bringing this need to exchange data and to be able to do so through solid and robust interoperability methods, "he added. 19659016] Top image credit:
Gettty / edited by Industry Dive