Anyone would be hard pressed to have missed the incredible growth in value of Bitcoin in the past year. Starting at less than $1,000 in early January 2017, it crested at nearly $20,000 before the end of the year—and just like that, the cryptocurrency craze had captured the attention of the world. Certainly, it has been an exciting ride, but what has been just as interesting but capturing much less attention is the technological plumbing that makes Bitcoin work—blockchain.

For companies that are paying attention, blockchain represents a far greater potential to disrupt every industry than Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Imaginations are running wild with ideas of how blockchain technology can change the process flow of data and transactions, and even how entire value chains will be turned on their heads. But while most of the early excitement for blockchain has been in financial services, it has an enormous potential to change healthcare and the medical device landscape. And while healthcare is historically slow to adopt new technologies, now is the time for medical device companies to begin giving the technology a serious look.

Read more from our CEO, Ron Wince, on how blockchain technology can transform the healthcare industry in his guest post for MedTech Intelligence.