Facilitating Secure and Efficient Health Information Exchange using Blockchain
Sagar S. Rane, Sanjeev J. Wagh, Arati M. Dixit · Solid State Technology · 2020
In traditional health information exchange activities in India, most patient i.e. end user data is sharedeither through paper records or verbally. Transfer of patients between different hospitals across the countryensues a transfer of medical information, which due to the above modes of transfer can get damaged or be onlypartially communicated. Even though the above model allows low-cost and confidential mode of data sharing,the paradigm increase in medical data over the years and the importance of accuracy in the transfer of suchinformation, requires for a similar low-cost, confidential as well as a secure and decentralized system formedical record sharing. This paper proposes a blockchain-enabled ecosystem enabled with interplanetary filesystem (IPFS) to surpass this challenge. We put forward an amalgamation of technologies primarily involvingsmart contracts, to maintain a safe channel of medical records between the patients and healthcare providers.Ethtereum blockchain is used to build a prototype of a mobile application available to both users and healthcareproviders. Moreover, the deployment of data analytical models will allow for better pharmaceutical activities tobe better directed, and will also facilitate preventive measures. The system evaluation provides compellingevidence towards the improvements in data transfer accuracy and security facilitated by the use of smartcontracts.