A Concept of E-Medical Record Storage and Sharing Based on Blockchain Technology

Abstract

Medical data contains sensitive information and can have big impact if stolen. The term medical identity theft is coined for such thefts. Medical records are collected from various sources like hospitals, diagnostic labs, physicians, pharmacy and health insurance companies and includes all details of patient including his demographic information, test reports like X – rays, CT scans, MRIs, etc. With the advent of digitization, these medical records are now stored in digital form to make access and sharing easier. However, storing and sharing these data electronically opens the threat of data theft and misuse. Health insurance companies often bear the brunt of fraudulent claims based on stolen medical data. So, the current need is to enable storing and sharing these data with security and make a prohibition on making copies of such data. Hence, considering the importance of healthcare data, the use of blockchain technology can be promising to maintain the security, privacy, immutability, authentication, and reliability of the data to the intended users. The aim of this paper is to investigate the current state of blockchain technology and its diverse applications. The paper also discusses the application of the blockchain technology in the domain of secure medical health record sharing.