Smart Contracts and Shared Platforms in Sustainable Health Care: Systematic Review
BackgroundThe benefits of smart contracts (SCs) for sustainable health care are a relatively recent topic that has gathered attention given its relationship with trust and the advantages of decentralization, immutability, and traceability introduced in health care. Neverthele...
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JMIR Publications
2025-01-01
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| Series: | JMIR Medical Informatics |
| Online Access: | https://medinform.jmir.org/2025/1/e58575 |
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| author | Carlos Antonio Marino Claudia Diaz Paz |
| author_facet | Carlos Antonio Marino Claudia Diaz Paz |
| author_sort | Carlos Antonio Marino |
| collection | DOAJ |
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BackgroundThe benefits of smart contracts (SCs) for sustainable health care are a relatively recent topic that has gathered attention given its relationship with trust and the advantages of decentralization, immutability, and traceability introduced in health care. Nevertheless, more studies need to explore the role of SCs in this sector based on the frameworks propounded in the literature that reflect business logic that has been customized, automatized, and prioritized, as well as system trust. This study addressed this lacuna.
ObjectiveThis study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of SCs in health care based on reviewing the frameworks propounded in the literature.
MethodsA structured literature review was performed based on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) principles. One database—Web of Science (WoS)—was selected to avoid bias generated by database differences and data wrangling. A quantitative assessment of the studies based on machine learning and data reduction methodologies was complemented with a qualitative, in-depth, detailed review of the frameworks propounded in the literature.
ResultsA total of 70 studies, which constituted 18.7% (70/374) of the studies on this subject, met the selection criteria and were analyzed. A multiple correspondence analysis—with 74.44% of the inertia—produced 3 factors describing the advances in the topic. Two of them referred to the leading roles of SCs: (1) health care process enhancement and (2) assurance of patients’ privacy protection. The first role included 6 themes, and the second one included 3 themes. The third factor encompassed the technical features that improve system efficiency. The in-depth review of these 3 factors and the identification of stakeholders allowed us to characterize the system trust in health care SCs. We assessed the risk of coverage bias, and good percentages of overlap were obtained—66% (49/74) of PubMed articles were also in WoS, and 88.3% (181/205) of WoS articles also appeared in Scopus.
ConclusionsThis comprehensive review allows us to understand the relevance of SCs and the potentiality of their use in patient-centric health care that considers more than technical aspects. It also provides insights for further research based on specific stakeholders, locations, and behaviors. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3cea86b288944af2b1bb09cb036f4a85 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2291-9694 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | JMIR Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | JMIR Medical Informatics |
| spelling | doaj-art-3cea86b288944af2b1bb09cb036f4a852025-01-31T20:31:14ZengJMIR PublicationsJMIR Medical Informatics2291-96942025-01-0113e5857510.2196/58575Smart Contracts and Shared Platforms in Sustainable Health Care: Systematic ReviewCarlos Antonio Marinohttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6393-6346Claudia Diaz Pazhttps://orcid.org/0009-0001-3334-0015 BackgroundThe benefits of smart contracts (SCs) for sustainable health care are a relatively recent topic that has gathered attention given its relationship with trust and the advantages of decentralization, immutability, and traceability introduced in health care. Nevertheless, more studies need to explore the role of SCs in this sector based on the frameworks propounded in the literature that reflect business logic that has been customized, automatized, and prioritized, as well as system trust. This study addressed this lacuna. ObjectiveThis study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of SCs in health care based on reviewing the frameworks propounded in the literature. MethodsA structured literature review was performed based on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) principles. One database—Web of Science (WoS)—was selected to avoid bias generated by database differences and data wrangling. A quantitative assessment of the studies based on machine learning and data reduction methodologies was complemented with a qualitative, in-depth, detailed review of the frameworks propounded in the literature. ResultsA total of 70 studies, which constituted 18.7% (70/374) of the studies on this subject, met the selection criteria and were analyzed. A multiple correspondence analysis—with 74.44% of the inertia—produced 3 factors describing the advances in the topic. Two of them referred to the leading roles of SCs: (1) health care process enhancement and (2) assurance of patients’ privacy protection. The first role included 6 themes, and the second one included 3 themes. The third factor encompassed the technical features that improve system efficiency. The in-depth review of these 3 factors and the identification of stakeholders allowed us to characterize the system trust in health care SCs. We assessed the risk of coverage bias, and good percentages of overlap were obtained—66% (49/74) of PubMed articles were also in WoS, and 88.3% (181/205) of WoS articles also appeared in Scopus. ConclusionsThis comprehensive review allows us to understand the relevance of SCs and the potentiality of their use in patient-centric health care that considers more than technical aspects. It also provides insights for further research based on specific stakeholders, locations, and behaviors.https://medinform.jmir.org/2025/1/e58575 |
| spellingShingle | Carlos Antonio Marino Claudia Diaz Paz Smart Contracts and Shared Platforms in Sustainable Health Care: Systematic Review JMIR Medical Informatics |
| title | Smart Contracts and Shared Platforms in Sustainable Health Care: Systematic Review |
| title_full | Smart Contracts and Shared Platforms in Sustainable Health Care: Systematic Review |
| title_fullStr | Smart Contracts and Shared Platforms in Sustainable Health Care: Systematic Review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Smart Contracts and Shared Platforms in Sustainable Health Care: Systematic Review |
| title_short | Smart Contracts and Shared Platforms in Sustainable Health Care: Systematic Review |
| title_sort | smart contracts and shared platforms in sustainable health care systematic review |
| url | https://medinform.jmir.org/2025/1/e58575 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT carlosantoniomarino smartcontractsandsharedplatformsinsustainablehealthcaresystematicreview AT claudiadiazpaz smartcontractsandsharedplatformsinsustainablehealthcaresystematicreview |