Blockchain-based smart contracts for secure record management in the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

Blockchain offers a secure platform for data exchange across sectors like banking, supply chain, IoT, and healthcare. In medical services, challenges arise from inefficient referral processes, data sharing between facilities, and limited patient access to records. Issues like data abuse and security concerns in electronic health records (EHRs) exacerbate these problems. This study explores blockchain-based smart contracts for managing pharmaceutical records, leveraging the practical Byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT) consensus method. The findings show healthcare practitioners can securely input patient data into the blockchain, while patients can contribute social data such as sleep patterns and activities. This enriched dataset supports improved diagnosis and prognosis. The study also evaluates execution time and data transmission for ledger updates as the network expands with more hospitals and blocks, demonstrating the scalability of blockchain-based healthcare solutions.