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Special Issue

System Innovation through Blockchain Application: Assessing Opportunities and Limitations of using Distributed Ledgers in Healthcare

Blockchain technology is anticipated to touch, if not transform multiple industries including healthcare.  By enhancing data flow among various stakeholders in the healthcare industry, blockchain would enable access to comprehensive health records and facilitate collaboration opportunities.  Blockchain in turn may potentially impact health outcomes, patient satisfaction, provider efficiency.  With the premise of empowering individuals, blockchain provides opportunities for patients to access and manage their health data.  Rooted in the finance world, blockchain has yet to be adapted to clinical settings in which information from different sources must be integrated.  Following the intense publicity around the opportunities of blockchain, rigorous research is needed to effectively design and evaluate blockchain applications in the context of health care as a system which is the purview of this journal. 

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Novel system approaches utilizing blockchain in the realm of consumer health informatics.
  • Innovative design of blockchain solutions in healthcare serving patients, physicians, pharmacologists, and payers.
  • Design of blockchain solutions that to ensure patient privacy and confidentiality
  • Evaluation of blockchain solutions as a platform for sharing health data across health institutions
  • Evaluation of the economic impact of using of blockchain in healthcare including sustainability requirements
  • Issues associated with the integration of blockchain with current health systems including interoperability requirements
  • Implication of blockchain use in terms health outcomes, patient satisfaction, and provider efficiency
  • Implications of increasing patient access and governance of health data through blockchain

Health Systems

Health Systems promotes the idea that all aspects of health and healthcare delivery can be viewed from a systems perspective. The belief of the journal is that health and healthcare systems are characterized by complexity and interconnectedness, where "everything affects everything else".

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Important Dates

  • Paper submission due: December 31, 2019
  • First notification: March 30, 2020
  • Revisions due: May 30, 2020
  • Final decision: July 30, 2020
  • Expected publication date: 3rd Quarter 2020

Submission guidelines

Authors should prepare their manuscripts according to the “Instruction for Authors” found here .  Full Papers on the above-mentioned topics from conferences like AMIA, ICIS, AMCIS, INFORMS, WITS, or INFORMS International are strongly encouraged for submission.  Extensions of conference papers with about 50% new content will be reviewed upon reception.  All papers, including those presented at AMIA, ICIS, WITS, and INFORMS International, will be peer-reviewed on an expedited reviewing process by experts in Blockchain and Health Informatics.

Guest Editors

Lina Bouayad, PhD (Managing Guest Co-Editor), Florida International University, lbouayad@fiu.edu

Raja Jayaraman, PhD (Managing Guest Co-Editor), Khalifa University, raja.jayaraman@ku.ac.ae

Associate Guest Editors

Stephen Wingreen, University of Canterbury, stephen.wingreen@canterbury.ac.nz

Christopher E Johnson, PhD, University of Louisville, cejohn23@louisville.edu

Kevin Clauson, PhD, Lipscomb University, kevin.clauson@lipscomb.edu

Elizabeth Breeden, PhD, Lipscomb University, beth.breeden@lipscomb.edu

Debra VanderMeer, PhD, Florida International University, vanderd@fiu.edu

Pouyan Esmaeil Zadeh, PhD, Florida International University, pesmaeil@fiu.edu

Ravishankar Sharma, PhD, University of Canterbury, ravishankar.sharma@canterbury.ac.nz