Secure and Decentralized Patient Medical Record Management System Powered by Ethereum Blockchain and IPFS

Abstract

Today, effective patient care and informed decision-making depend on Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Maintaining the quality and dependability of patient treatment and health insurance policies depends on proving the validity of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). However, traditional EHR systems suffer from privacy violations and data breaches. We propose a distributed solution that meets these problems by using blockchain technology and Inter Planetary File solution (IPFS), which proposes safely storing and retrieving private medical records. In this, actual medical records are uploaded to IPFS with the use of Pinata for off-chain storage, whereas the system utilizes smart contracts implemented on a blockchain to store patient metadata, which comprises primary identification details such as Aadhar numbers safely. This approach ensures record transparency and immutability without compromising patient confidentiality. The system design allows for safe retrieval of medical records using the Content Identifier (CID), which is attached to every patient's Aadhar number. We demonstrate the implementation using transaction management on Ethereum's private network with Ganache, Truffle, and MetaMask. This solution meets the distributed demand for safe medical data storage and retrieval, therefore opening opportunities for patient-centric healthcare systems with integrity and accessibility maintained.