Blockchain Technology for Healthcare and Self-Sovereign Identity
Dilip Kumar · 2024
The potential for blockchain technology to revolutionize the healthcare industry, and one of the demanding applications, is managing electronic health records, including electrocardiogram (ECG) data. Blockchain provides facility to store sensitive medical data like ECG reading in a secure and decentralized way. The immutability it offers implies that data stored on the blockchain cannot be altered or removed once it has been committed. This builds trust in the accuracy of patient records. Blockchain helps us to track of patients’ participation and progress in clinical trials, ensuring transparency and data integrity throughout the process. Blockchain with healthcare meets certain challenges like scalability, regulatory compliance, and standardization of data formats. Additionally, any blockchain-based system must prioritize data privacy and security to safeguard patients’ sensitive information. We can use smart contracts which can utilize smart contracts to automate data transactions and enforce access controls. Smart contracts are self-executing programs which run on the blockchain and automatically execute predefined conditions. Smart contract can be used to manage patient consent for sharing ECG data with specific individuals or groups.