Implementation of a Peer-to-Peer Network Using Blockchain to Manage and Secure Electronic Medical Records

Abstract

An electronic medical record (EMR) is the digital medical data of a patient, and they are healthcare system's most valuable asset. In this paper, we introduce a decentralized network using blockchain technology and smart contracts as a solution to manage and secure medical records storing, and transactions between medical healthcare providers. Ethereum blockchain is employed to build the blockchain. Solidity object-oriented language was utilized to implement smart contracts to digitally facilitate and verify transactions across the network (creating records, access requests, permitting access, revoking access, rejecting access). This will mitigate prevailing issues of current systems and enhance their performance, since current EMRs are stored on a centralized database, which cannot guarantee data integrity and security, consequently making them susceptible to malicious attacks. Our proposed system approach is of vital importance considering that healthcare providers depend on various tests in making a decision about a patient's diagnosis, and the respective plan of treatment they will go through. These tests are not shared with other providers, while data is scattered on various systems, as a consequence of these ensuing scenarios, patients suffer of the resulting care provided. Moreover, blockchain can meliorate the motley serious challenges caused by future use of IoT devices that provide real-time data from patients. Therefore, integrating the two technologies will produce decentralized IoT based healthcare systems.