Mitigate Long-lasting Ethical Issues in the Healthcare Industry with Blockchain-based Solutions

Abstract

As one of the most promising innovations in the recent computing paradigm, blockchain technology has been introduced into many fields such as finance. With the outbreak of the epidemic and the intensification of the global public health crisis, medical care has also undergone rapid revolutionary changes in replacing traditional systems with new technologies. Among them, the ethical issues exposed in the process of transformation are under intense debate. Traditional research and surveys focus on the privacy of patient data management and only include some roles in the medical ecosystem, which cannot meet the existing needs. To this end, based on system thinking, this paper studies blockchain technology and emphasizes its application potential in the field of health care to alleviate some long-standing ethical problems, mainly including manipulation of organ transplantation, counterfeit drugs, and medical insurance fraud. It also discussed the technical challenges and limitations of the implementation of the blockchain-based system and ended with the possibility of reimagining the future.