A Blockchain-based Secured and Privacy-Preserved Personal Healthcare Record Exchange System

Abstract

The demand for personal healthcare record (PHR) exchange among electronic medical record (EMR) systems and patients is growing along with remarkable efforts to improve the quality, safety, privacy-preserving, and efficiency of healthcare information delivery. Currently, in EMR systems, there are problems of fragmented communication and lack of interoperability for health care professionals, hospitals, clinics and patients to appropriately access and securely share a patient’s EMR. Moreover, in the context of the recent soaring of security breaches and surveillance in incidents reported, a solution to ensure the safety and privacy of data is essential. Blockchain can ensure trust, security, and privacy of individual data in the digital world. By leveraging blockchain features, we propose HoloCare system for providing a single source from the patient’s PHR for authentication, permission granting and remote access to the health information data from other EMR systems. To demonstrate the practicability and effectiveness of HoloCare, we utilize HL7 FHIR, known as a standard for healthcare data exchange in a wide variety of contexts from PHR-based data sharing, server communication among and within healthcare providers.