The IBM Institute for Business Value and The Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a survey of 200 healthcare executives in 16 countries, with a focus on blockchains in healthcare, according to healthcare informatics.
Here are seven insights:
1. The survey revealed 16 percent of healthcare organizations plan to have a "commercial blockchain solution at scale in 2017," according to healthcare informatics.
2. Those organizations that are ready to commercialize blockchains in 2017 see the greatest benefits in clinical trial records, regulatory compliance and medical records.
3. The pioneering organizations expect blockchain solutions to give them leverage so they can enter new markets.
4. Blockchain offers "long data" as opposed to big data, wrote the researchers. The goal involves capturing a full history of a patient's health with every vital sign and medicine ever taken.
5. Nine in 10 survey respondents reported they want to finance blockchain applications by 2018.
6. Barriers to blockchain adoption included immature technology (56 percent) and insufficient skills (55 percent).
7. The survey also discovered only 8 percent of North America respondents are at the forefront of blockchain adoption.