A System For Storing Anonymous Patient Healthcare Data Using Blockchain And Its Applications

• Published in: Computer journal Vol. 67; no. 1; pp. 18 - 30
• Main Author: Oksuz, Ozgur
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 17.01.2024
• Subjects: COVID-19; medical Records; security; blockchain; privacy; anonymity; machine learning; unlinkability
• ISSN: 0010-4620; 1460-2067
• DOI: 10.1093/comjnl/bxac155

In this paper, a system is proposed which uses blockchain technology in healthcare. In this system, patients can access their health records anytime from anywhere. Moreover, the patients’ health records are put into the blockchain anonymously. Whenever a patient visits a healthcare professional, the authorized entity filters patients’ medical report out by eliminating the patients’ sensitive information. Then, the filtered medical data are put into an off-chain database, while the address of the data is put into the blockchain with an assigned pseudo random identity of the patient. Thus, there are multi pseudo random identities for each patient. Unlike previous studies where the patients’ identities/reports were linkable, in the proposed protocol the patients’ identities are not linkable. The proposed system can also be used to show patients’ health status to some entities when a pandemic happens (e.g. COVID-19). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the patients are required to show their series of vaccinations before they travel internationally/nationally or participate in some social events. To travel or join some events, the patient needs to show only a partial medical history to the security guard without leaking any private information. Furthermore, once the anonymous medical data are put into the off-chain database, the data can be used for data mining and machine learning.