Blockchain Development for Increased Transparency and Novel Incentives Structures with Wearables in mHealth
Technische Universität Berlin, Chair of Information and Communication Management, Berlin, Germany, Max-Marcel Theilig · 2020
Blockchain technologies are heavily used in concepts to disrupt monetary platforms or supply chain applications, while there are other potentially well-suited sectors. Individual, personal data like in the sector of wellbeing and health lifestyle is fragmented across multiple silos, and here, blockchains offer a real solution. The blockchain technology is able to increase transparency, provide traceability while keeping pseudonymity, and therefore, enables novel incentive concepts. Towards this end, we implement a prototype for adoption of medical standard information using the Ethereum blockchain on a WearOS device. We found that deploying and running blockchain smart contracts on a consumer smart watch is feasible. While proof of concept was shown for quantified health monitoring, vast developments pose a high technical barrier, with limited documentation available. Further identified obstacles relate to the multifarious, cross-platform means needed for integration into broader projects.