This study aims to identify artificial intelligence and blockchain technology's publication productivity and intellectual structure in the healthcare industry. This study employs a bibliometric-content analysis technique to determine intellectual structure and publication productivity. The Scopus database analyses identified research articles from 2018 to 2023. The findings of the thematic mapping show that AI and blockchain are emerging techniques and topics such as “smart healthcare”, “patient-centric”, “healthcare management”, “virtual & augmented reality”, “decentralization”, etc. are the potential and new dimensions that can be looked upon in future themes. This study advances knowledge by providing a current and future overview of AI and blockchain integration in the healthcare industry that would create new and enhance existing research streams.
TopIntroduction
The term “4IR” or “Fourth Industrial Revolution” was first introduced in the CeBIT-2011 forum by German researchers (Majstorović et al., 2018). Since then, it has been a synonym to mention a process that empowers businesses and manufacturing facilities throughout all industries to connect with internet technology, including but not limited to AI (artificial intelligence), Big Data, CPS (cyber-physical systems), Deep Learning and other state-of-the-art tools. Though, digitization and internet-of-things (IoT) have already helped to transform business processes, logistics and supply chain management (Goyal et al., 2019; Manhoar et al., 2020; Ahsan & Siddique, 2022), the healthcare industry has also witnessed a significant transformation in last couple of decades with the proliferation of internet technology and AI-powered devices (Ochella et al., 2022; Verma & Srivastava, 2022). Healthcare technologies easily connect and exchange big data in a unique and secured manner.
According to Kumar et al. (2019), “as the establishment of tools grows, the healthcare industry experiences radical and technical modification”. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies are new and peculiar advancements in the healthcare industry (Vyas et al., 2022). On one hand, blockchain technology aids in storing encrypted electronic health records (EHR), whereas on the other hand, artificial intelligence requires this information to process outcomes. Blockchain technology facilitates healthcare practitioners to view the health records of the patient and artificial intelligence further uses numerous proposed combinations of “Algorithms”, “Decision-Making Capabilities” and “Big Data” to prevent epidemiological transition (Kim & Huh, 2020). Innovative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) can manage big data, enabling practitioners to swiftly detect, diagnose, and treat illness with automated options. At the same time, blockchain technology enhances communication and data transparency between healthcare professionals and patients.
AI plays a significant role in recognizing trends and patterns in the healthcare sector (Yi et al., 2022) and also helps in monitoring clinical trials (Kumar et al., 2023). It holds several advantages over traditional methods of making clinical decisions. AI algorithms predict precise health assessments and facilitate understanding patients' EHR data, which further aids in getting unprecedented insights into the care process, diagnostics and treatment variability results. While artificial intelligence has been recognized as a growing and prosperous area in the healthcare sector, the recent developments in blockchain technology systems have also opened new horizons for a decentralized environment. Blockchain technology, originally developed to understand the crypto-currency ecosystem (Oberoi & Kansra, 2021; Oberoi & Kansra, 2022; Verma et al., 2022), further started its integration into the healthcare sector. Blockchain accounts for various features, viz. decentralized control, automated micro-transactions, smart contracts, etc., for securing the privacy of patients' health records. These health records include medical reports, billing information and clinical trial results (Bach et al., 2018). Artificial intelligence and blockchain are powerful technologies that holds the potential to reform existing processes for greater efficiency and seamlessness.
Yet, till date there is a dearth of literature that highlights the trends and application of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology in healthcare industry. Therefore, this study aims to identify the publication productivity and intellectual structure of the research area. Following are the specific research questions (RQ) on application of both technologies in healthcare industry:
RQI: To highlight the research trends and publication productivity on application of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology in healthcare industry?
RQII: To identify highly influential articles on AI and blockchain in healthcare industry.
RQIII: To identify the prominent themes and areas of research that should be addressed in future research studies.