Leveraging Patient Information Sharing Using Blockchain-Based Distributed Networks

Abstract

Nowadays, due to the evolution of information technologies and their adoption in the healthcare domain, new risks to medical data protection and patient privacy are increasingly present. It is therefore important to implement approaches that can prevent rapidly emerging cyber-attacks. Essentially, the adoption of cyber security measures in healthcare should be oriented towards a better assurance of patient rights and consent management. Blockchain is one of the most advanced technologies that can deal with many types of cyber threats ensuring the integrity, availability, and privacy of the data. It adds elements of trust and traceability to the data exchange processes deployed within Hospital information systems and beyond. In this paper, we study the usability of blockchain in the healthcare domain and we develop a data exchange approach based on the Hyperledger Blockchain model. The focus here will be mainly on privacy concerns and the integration of patient consent in the data sharing operational controls.