I was having a conversation with Mike, a colleague of mine who has been in the pharmaceutical industry for over 15 years, and I tried to impress on him the potential I saw for blockchain in health care and more specifically pharma. After several attempts at explaining how blockchain works and its benefits, it was clear he was not getting it. I was struggling to get through to him, and he was getting frustrated. “I don’t understand how it’s supposed to deal with issues like security and patient privacy,” he finally said.

After doing some research, I realized Mike and I were not the only ones struggling. Many different sources cite the single biggest challenge to adopting blockchain technology is explaining how it works. My discussion with Mike inspired me to write this blog.