Integrity and Privacy-Aware, Patient-Centric Health Record Access Control Framework Using a Blockchain

Blockchains are gaining traction as secure and reliable platforms for data sharing in fields such as banking, supply chain management, food production, energy, the Internet, and medical services. Furthermore, when decentralized, a blockchain can be regarded as an immutable ledger storing data entries. Moreover, this modern technology was designed to disrupt various data-driven industries, including the healthcare industry. While electronic healthcare services have enabled more straightforward and accessible treatment, patient privacy has become vulnerable to external and internal attacks by healthcare personnel. Therefore, we aimed to design a framework to control patient health records that ensures the patient can provide the necessary permissions to those who access his/her health records. This framework will record all activities via blockchain and usage control. Through this framework, we aim to create a user-centric and privacy-aware experience. A literature review and experiments have been performed to select an optimized and placable blockchain operating system. In addition, performance analysis showed that the OS and smart contracts work at an acceptable speed.

Automated summary

Blockchains are recognized as secure and reliable platforms for data sharing in various industries. They can be seen as immutable ledgers storing data entries when decentralized. A framework has been designed to control patient health records and ensure patient privacy through blockchain and usage control. Performance analysis showed that the optimized blockchain operating system works at an acceptable speed.