QuantumMedLedger: A Post-Quantum Secure Blockchain Framework for Healthcare

Abstract

The rapid adoption of digital healthcare systems has significantly increased the use of Electronic Health Records (EHR), online appointment platforms, and digital prescription management. While these technologies enhance accessibility and operational efficiency, they also introduce critical challenges related to data confidentiality, secure authentication, record integrity, and protection against unauthorized access. Healthcare data contains highly sensitive personal and medical information, making security a primary concern. Ensuring secure communication and verified access between patients and doctors remains a major challenge in maintaining trust and privacy within digital healthcare environments. Many existing healthcare management systems rely on centralized storage models and basic authentication mechanisms, exposing them to risks such as data breaches, impersonation attacks, and unauthorized record modification. Although basic encryption mechanisms may be applied to protect stored data, key management and authentication processes often rely on standard approaches without decentralized verification or advanced cryptographic reinforcement. As a result, centralized architecture creates a single point of failure, increasing vulnerability to unauthorized access, data tampering, and weak identity verification. Limited transparency and auditability further restrict effective monitoring of data usage and system activities. To address these issues, the proposed system introduces Quantum Crypt (QC), a hybrid security approach that integrates blockchain technology with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) concepts and advanced encryption mechanisms. Medical reports and prescriptions are secured using the Advanced Encryption Standard in Cipher Block Chaining mode (AES-CBC), with encryption keys generated through a quantum-inspired mechanism. Authentication is enhanced through a lattice-inspired model implemented via Qiskit-based quantum circuit simulation to ensure secure key validation between patients and doctors. Blockchain integration using Web3 and smart contracts ensures immutable storage of healthcare records, improving transparency, strengthening data integrity, and enabling controlled access within the digital healthcare ecosystem.