Blockchain-Based Smart Contract Model for Securing Healthcare Transactions by Using Consumer Electronics and Mobile-Edge Computing

Abstract

Blockchain technology has been an emerging solution to various problems in the healthcare sector. Its applications in the healthcare sector range from securing patient data to increasing transparency in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Here, consumer electronic devices are used to collect and process healthcare data before uploading them to a blockchain network. Many schemes have been already developed using blockchain technology, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), and consumer electronic devices to exchange Electronic Medical Records (EMR) efficiently. However, they face many critical concerns like data security, automation, and scalability. A novel blockchain-based EMR sharing scheme is proposed in this work to solve these problems. It protects the system during the entire Health Information Exchange (HIE) process between the patient and doctor. Here, consumer electronic devices and MEC are used to generate and upload EMRs and diagnosis reports. The proposed scheme utilizes Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Rivest Shamir and Adleman (RSA), Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA), Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) techniques, and Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS) to securely store EMRs, so that they cannot be tampered with and are always available to authorized users. Experimental results of the proposed scheme show its efficiency compared to other existing well-known schemes.