Enhancing health-care security: The role of blockchain and consensus mechanisms

Abstract

Blockchain technology has gained prominence recently by virtue of its strong security features for clinical data. Automation of blockchain transactions enables data transactions and records, providing decentralized, secure, and dependable access. Through intelligence-sharing agreements, it can also manage member relationships without the need for a middleman or other third party. Researchers in the health-care industry using blockchain algorithms to safeguard security of data, which is properly stored, are on the rise. In addition, this technology is patient adaptive. Patients and other health-care users can now trust the technology because it prevents any third party from accessing the medical data. Many platforms intended for use in the health-care domain are emerging, including Gem Health Network and MedRec. Using blockchain in health-care protects user data and grants them full authority over their data. However, blockchain technology is also confronting challenges and limitations regarding data privacy and storage capacity. This paper explores the implementation of blockchain within health-care sector while providing an overview of this technology and the different consensus algorithms used in blockchain technology.