Prioritization of the Factors Related to the Adoption of Blockchain Technology in the Electronic Health Record Systems

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Seyyed Mahdi Hosseini Sarkhosh
Assistant Professor, Industrial Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Garmsar University, Garmsar, Iran; E-mail: sm.hosseini@fmgarmsar.ac.ir
10.48305/him.2022.39259.1029
Abstract
Introduction: Blockchain technology has emerged as the fourth industrial revolution in recent years, which can facilitate the management and exchange of patient records by developing a new infrastructure. A review of the literature indicates the lack of studies and the need for further study of the factors affecting the adoption of this technology in the healthcare industry. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to prioritize the factors related to the adoption of blockchain technology in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems.

Methods: In this descriptive study, 15 factors related to blockchain adoption in EHR systems were identified by reviewing the scientific literature. Then, these factors were validated by 17 experts who were selected by targeted sampling method and divided into five categories: technological, legal, financial, environmental and organizational. Finally, the weight of each criterion was determined by the fuzzy best-worst method and the consistency of experts’ opinions was evaluated.

Results: According to the judgments of experts, the legal criterion with 32 percent was identified as the most important factor in the adoption of blockchain technology in EHR systems. In addition, security and privacy (16.66 percent), compliance with legal requirements (13.10 percent), compliance with changes in laws (12.22 percent), incentives and rewards (7.01 percent) and standardization (6.87 percent) were identified as five most important sub-criteria in the adoption of the technology, respectively.

Conclusion: With the help of the factors identified in this study and the weights determined for each of them, a method can be developed to assess the level of readiness of healthcare providers in adopting blockchain technology in EHR systems.

Keywords

Subjects

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Health Information Management
Volume 19, Issue 2 - Serial Number 84
May and June 2022
Pages 71-78