IBM describes blockchain technology as “a shared, immutable digital ledger, enabling the recording of transactions and the tracking of assets within a business network and providing a single source of truth. Blockchain operates as a decentralized, distributed database, with data stored across multiple computers, making it resistant to tampering. Transactions are validated through a consensus mechanism, ensuring agreement across the network.”
The first definition encapsulates why blockchain is such a compelling solution for industries that handle sensitive information, particularly healthcare. Its decentralization, immutability, and consensus-driven validation particularly address longstanding problems of medical data security, interoperability, and trust in medical systems.
According to the Blockchain in Healthcare Market Size and Forecast 2025 to 2034, “the global blockchain in healthcare market size was accounted for USD 9.56 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to reach around USD 193.43 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 35.08% from 2025 to 2034.”
This growth reflects the urgency for digitization, the demand for efficient medical data storage, and the pursuit of patient-centered care.
At the same time, academic research shows how blockchain can directly reshape the way electronic health records (EHRs) are handled. A Systematic Review on Electronic Health Records in a Blockchain, “Blockchain technology has the potential to transform health care by placing the patient at the center of the health system and increasing the security, privacy, and interoperability of health data.”
Market enthusiasm must be matched with real solutions to long-standing EHR challenges. “EHRs were not designed to manage multi-institutional, lifetime medical records. Patients leave data scattered across various organizations… they lose easy access to past data, as the provider, not the patient, typically retains primary stewardship,” the systematic review adds.
Blockchain directly addresses this issue, allowing lifelong, patient-owned records stored in an interoperable system. More specifically, the review identifies five necessary characteristics for blockchain-based EHRs:
Each characteristic is a requirement but may be a challenge for implementation. For example, healthcare data can be both an asset and a vulnerability, especially since EHRs contain “critical and highly sensitive private information for diagnosis and treatment in healthcare.”
Yet, most records remain scattered across hospitals and clinics, often inaccessible to patients themselves. It creates a fragmented model that undermines continuity of care and creates opportunities for data breaches.
Blockchain offers a new paradigm, distributing health information across a secure, peer-to-peer network. Each transaction is immutable, timestamped, and transparent. As the review explains, “supporting a sharing and trust mechanism, blockchain provides a possible future solution for data sharing, which could enable collaborative clinical decision-making in telemedicine and precision medicine.”
The decentralized model is increasingly attractive at a time when cyberattacks against hospitals and insurers are intensifying. As such, blockchain technology can promise resilience and patient empowerment.
The Blockchain in Healthcare Market Size and Forecast provides an overview of expected growth across regions, applications, and stakeholders. In 2025 alone, the blockchain in healthcare market is projected to reach USD 12.92 billion, and by 2034, it is forecasted to exceed USD 193 billion. Other indicators include:
The forecast notes, “the AI and blockchain are one of the revolutionary technologies which are associated with the healthcare industry. While the blockchain [is] used to store and manage all the clinical or healthcare data, the integrated AI technology enhance[s] the decision-making process for analysis of large quantity of data.”
Several recent developments exemplify this convergence. In 2024, XRP Healthcare launched the XRPH AI Chatbot, which uses blockchain-secured data to deliver personalized health guidance. In 2025, OmegaX Health expanded its AI-blockchain medical ecosystem to Binance Smart Chain, also showing the growth of decentralized infrastructure in precision medicine.
The integration allows large-scale data analytics while maintaining the privacy and integrity of sensitive health information. For example, clinical trial data stored on blockchain can be processed by AI to accelerate drug development while preserving auditability.
North America leads the market with a 43% share in 2024, due to its early adoption of digital innovations and substantial private and public investment. Initiatives like the March 2025 partnership between Circular Protocol, Arculus, and IT Lab are an example of the region’s commitment to blockchain-compliant ecosystems. These platforms “integrate into clinical networks and serve as the secure passkey for recording, managing, and safeguarding healthcare data.”
Europe’s blockchain adoption is shaped by regulatory frameworks like GDPR. European countries use blockchain to maintain transparency and traceability in pharmaceutical supply chains while exploring interoperable EHR frameworks. The authors of the systematic review note that “without the adoption of interoperable data standards (such as HL7 FHIR or OpenEHR), clinical data can be specified in formats and structures that are difficult to interpret and integrate into other systems.”
The Asia-Pacific region shows strong momentum, driven by population growth and digital health investment. India’s healthcare industry, valued at USD 372 billion in 2023, illustrates how rapid expansion creates demand for scalable digital infrastructures. Projects like blockchain-based digital health passports in India exemplify how blockchain is becoming integral to e-health sectors.
While EHRs capture much attention, supply chain management remains blockchain’s biggest foothold in healthcare. IBM’s Drug Supply Chain Application demonstrates this, offering transparency and visibility over the drug supply chain. Their tracking provides quality standards assurance, maintains the risk associated with substandard products, and stands for recall when required.
Healthcare payers are also recognizing blockchain’s potential to reduce fraud and streamline claims. As the report notes, “a large number of healthcare payers are adopting the blockchain technology for enhancing transparency, maintaining operations, and minimizing the risk of fraud.”
Despite its promise, blockchain in healthcare faces hurdles, including:
The market analysis identifies that “the high cost associated with the use of this technology in the healthcare sector is the major factor hampering the market growth.” Development, regulation, and expertise create significant financial barriers, particularly for smaller healthcare providers.
The review found that “interoperability, privacy, and authorization (access control) are among the major concerns and challenges that were identified in the EHR Blockchain literature.” Without common standards, like HL7 FHIR, blockchain risks replicating existing silos, rather than solving them.
Blockchain’s immutability clashes with the right to be forgotten under GDPR. Storing growing patient data also risks overwhelming networks, potentially requiring hybrid architectures with off-chain storage.
As the review explains, “in such a case, health data can be stored off-chain, and if a patient exercises his or her right to be forgotten, the personal information that is stored off-chain could be deleted.”
Patients may not easily interact with blockchain-secured health records unless systems are designed intuitively. Moreover, without user-friendly systems, blockchain risks becoming another opaque layer of healthcare IT.
Despite the challenges, governments, payers, and tech companies are accelerating blockchain adoption because of its unmatched potential for secure, transparent, and interoperable healthcare.
The intersection of market momentum and academic inquiry suggests that blockchain in healthcare is moving from pilot projects to systemic adoption. The review concludes that “blockchain technology might be a future suitable solution for common problems in the healthcare field, such as EHR interoperability, establishing sharing trust between healthcare providers, auditability, privacy, and granting of health data access control by patients.”
With a projected CAGR of over 35% through 2034, blockchain in healthcare is shifting from pilot projects to global infrastructure. Its integration with AI, IoT, and cloud solutions promises to make healthcare smarter, safer, and more equitable.
Blockchain in healthcare is a secure, decentralized system that stores and shares medical data across multiple computers, making it resistant to tampering and improving trust.
Blockchain protects patient privacy through advanced cryptography and decentralized data storage. Instead of relying on a single database that can be hacked, patient information is distributed across a secure network. Access is controlled by digital keys, so only authorized users can access or modify health information.
Yes. Blockchain helps meet requirements under HIPAA and GDPR by ensuring secure data handling, auditability, and traceability.
Go deeper: The intersection of GDPR and HIPAA