Securing Patients' Healthcare Records Using Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts

Abstract

Patient healthcare records face problems related to safety means, one of which is the failure to provide privacy for patients' healthcare records (PHR), to protect them from being viewed by unauthorized users. There is also a problem related to the patient carrying his medical records in any hospital. In this research, we used Blockchain technology, as this technology solved many problems. Transactions provided through blockchain have a tamper-proof feature through distributed hashing algorithms within the ledger. We proposed a framework for a decentralized application system PHR using blockchain, smart contract, and asymmetric cryptography techniques to provide confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. From a literature review, our proposed framework system enables patient-centered control, unlike other proposed framework systems. We have used Hyperledger Besu that can run on Ethereum public or private networks. We have also created several smart contracts through which our main functions are executed. Finally, we created a decentralized application that supports integration with existing systems that require secure sharing of the data, not only for the medical environment.