Blockchain Technology in E-Healthcare

Introduction

What exactly is the blockchain, and why is it being spoken about so much? Immutable and distributable data records that are shared peer to peer between networked database systems are created using this technique. The technique captures digital events in such a way that the data cannot be altered or recognized until it reaches the intended recipient. As a result, the most major benefit of blockchain is that the data is theoretically secure and protected from data breach threats. (Hölbl et al., 2018) The banking sector has already recognized the benefits of blockchain technology. Will medical institutions be prepared to benefit from cryptography? There are numerous blockchain applications in healthcare, and in this article, we'll look at the technology's long-term potential as well as existing applications.

The beginning of the twenty-first century saw significant advancements in digital technology, which are reshaping the global healthcare sector. Healthcare systems are undergoing a continuous and efficient transition from paper to electronic records, resulting in a revolution in the business. By providing a stage that efficiently exchanges healthcare data among different stakeholders and entities in the system, such signals of progress bring great efficiency and flexibility to healthcare services. Paper-based records were transformed into computerized E records, such as Electronic Medical Records, as a result of this evolution. Medical histories, statistical data, medicines, immunization status, laboratory test reports, and other sensitive information are all included in these records. EHD systems offer advantages over traditional paper-based recordkeeping. EHR requires less people, time, and physical storage than paper-based records. EHRs provide several advantages, including quicker and faster access to clinical data, the ability to maintain an active medical workflow, the correction of medical errors, greater patient care, lower medical expenses, and a better and stronger provision for experimental decision making.

Digitization and outsourcing of data, on the other hand, are easily available to a wider range of users. Due to the sensitive and secret nature of personal data, such a kind of data availability poses additional issues in terms of security and privacy; it also introduces new challenges in terms of scalability, reliability, and integrity (Feng et al., 2018). In this chapter, we conducted a complete search and plan to use blockchain and encryption to address the security and privacy concerns associated with E-healthcare data with patient portals, in order to protect against various assaults and challenges.

Healthcare as an industry stands to profit most from blockchain integration. Here’s how:

• •

  Identity Management: A blockchain-based patient identification system would improve the most unsafe and hardest problems.

• •

  Data Protection: The healthcare industry is often targeted to the highest number of data breaches. This data includes the personal information of patients, physicians, and medical records. A distributed system protects data from outbreaks or failure of local nodes.

• •

  Preventing Fraud: this issue is common in almost every industry. In the healthcare industry, fraud often refers to untrue medical records, claims, and proof of work. However, a tamper-proof ledger of hashes can solve this problem.