Examining the Potential of Blockchain Technology to Meet the Needs of 21st-Century Japanese Health Care: Viewpoint on Use Cases and Policy

【Author】 Mackey, Tim; Bekki, Hirofumi; Matsuzaki, Tokio; Mizushima, Hiroshi

【Source】JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH

【影响因子】7.076

【Abstract】Japan is undergoing a major population health transition as its society ages, and it continues to experience low birth rates. An aging Japan will bring new challenges to its public health system, highlighted as a model for universal health coverage (UHC) around the world. Specific challenges Japan's health care system will face include an increase in national public health expenditures, higher demand for health care services, acute need for elder and long-term care, shortage of health care workers, and disparities between health care access in rural versus urban areas. Blockchain technology has the potential to address some of these challenges, but only if a health blockchain is conceptualized, designed, localized, and deployed in a way that is compatible with Japan's centralized UHC-centric public health system. Blockchain solutions must also be adaptive to opportunities and barriers unique to Japan's national health and innovation policy, including its regulatory sandbox system, while also seeking to learn from blockchain adoption in the private sector and in other countries. This viewpoint outlines the major opportunities and potential challenges to blockchain adoption for the future of Japan's health care.

【Keywords】information storage and retrieval; blockchain; Japan; aging; health informatics; health policy; global health

【发表时间】2020 9-Jan

【收录时间】2022-01-02

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