Privacy Preserving Blockchain for Healthcare: Addressing Security Challenges Through Decentralized Architecture
Gaurav Sarraf · Technix International Journal for Engineering Research · 2023
The healthcare industry faces several security, privacy, and data integrity issues; blockchain technology provides a strong foundation to handle these issues. Traditional healthcare systems face issues such as unauthorized data access, breaches, and lack of interoperability across heterogeneous infrastructures. By leveraging decentralization, immutability, and consensus mechanisms, blockchain enables privacy-preserving data sharing and patient-centric identity management through Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) frameworks. Cryptographic techniques such as Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC), Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP), homomorphic encryption, commitment schemes, and many more provide the privacy of computation, the verification of consent, and the security of interactions among healthcare professionals, research institutions, and patients. Smart contracts further streamline automated processes, such as consent management, clinical trials, and electronic health record (EHR) transactions. Despite these advantages, challenges remain in scalability, key management, regulatory compliance, and usability. This review explores blockchain-based architectures, cryptographic methods, and privacy-preserving strategies, emphasizing their potential to strengthen trust, enhance security, and enable interoperable, efficient, and patient-centric healthcare systems while adhering to emerging global data protection standards.