What is a Blockchain?
“A blockchain, originally block chain, is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data” (Wikipedia, 2020).
Healthcare Application
In healthcare the blockchain could help with medical records, connectivity, privacy and security.
Understand the Blockchain
Summary
To be honest, I still don’t really understand Blockchain and most mere mortals probably won’t but its good to be aware of future innovations that may impact healthcare and keep nurses at the forefront of healthcare changes. A major component for the future of nurse training will be IT literacy skills and ensure technology is used to improve healthcare and most importantly patient outcomes- the eNurse.
Resources
Angraal, S., Krumholz, H. M., & Schulz, W. L. (2017). Blockchain technology: applications in health care. Circulation: Cardiovascular quality and outcomes, 10(9), e003800.
Gordon, W. J., & Catalini, C. (2018). Blockchain technology for healthcare: facilitating the transition to patient-driven interoperability. Computational and structural biotechnology journal, 16, 224-230.
Yoon, H. (2019). Blockchain Technology and Healthcare. Healthc Inform Res. 25(2): 59–60.
Wikpedia. (2020). Blockchain.