Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Sharing Wearable Health Data Using User-Defined Blockchain Policies

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Wearables in Healthcare (ICWH 2020)

Included in the following conference series:

  • 628 Accesses

Abstract

With recent advances in wearable technology and the rapid adoption of wearable devices, there are increased opportunities for setting up innovative data markets through which large amounts of user-generated physiological data can be made available to health researchers at relatively low costs. However, given the sensitive nature of such data, a major challenge associated with realizing a trusted wearable data marketplace is ensuring fine-grained access control and assuring conformance to it. In this paper, we propose a policy-based approach for facilitating the secure exchange of data between a wearable owner and a health researcher. User-defined data-sharing policies are translated into executable smart contracts that provide deterministic and transparent execution of transactions as per the terms and conditions of the data sharing agreement. To illustrate feasibility of the approach, we present a proof-of-concept implementation of the proposed policy-based access control mechanism using the open source Multichain platform.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.hyperledger.org/.

  2. 2.

    https://ethereum.org/.

  3. 3.

    https://encrypgen.com/.

  4. 4.

    https://www.multichain.com/developers/permissions-management/.

  5. 5.

    https://www.goquorum.com/.

References

  1. Seneviratne, S., et al.: A survey of wearable devices and challenges. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 19(4), 2573–2620 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Colman, A., Chowdhury, M.J.M., Chhetri, M.B.: Towards a trusted marketplace for wearable data. In: 2019 IEEE 5th International Conference on Collaboration and Internet Computing (CIC), pp. 314–321. IEEE (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Chowdhury, M.J.M., Colman, A., Han, J., Kabir, M.A.: A policy framework for subject-driven data sharing. In: Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  4. MultiChain: MultiChain—Open source blockchain platform (2019). https://www.multichain.com/

  5. Dias, D., Cunha, J.P.S.: Wearable health devices–vital sign monitoring, systems and technologies. Sensors 18(8), 2414 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Rhoads, J.G., Cooper, T., Fuchs, K., Schluter, P., Zambuto, R.P.: Medical device interoperability and the integrating the healthcare enterprise (IHE) initiative. Biomed. Instrum. Technol. (Suppl), 21–27 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  7. El-Amrawy, F., Nounou, M.I.: Are currently available wearable devices for activity tracking and heart rate monitoring accurate, precise, and medically beneficial? Healthc. Inform. Res. 21(4), 315–320 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bayardo, R.J., Agrawal, R.: Data privacy through optimal k-anonymization. In: 21st International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE 2005), pp. 217–228. IEEE (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Chowdhury, M.J.M., Pal, T.: A new symmetric key encryption algorithm based on 2-d geometry. In: 2009 International Conference on Electronic Computer Technology, pp. 541–544. IEEE (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Lo, S.K., et al.: Analysis of blockchain solutions for IoT: a systematic literature review. IEEE Access 7, 58822–58835 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Cyran, M.A.: Blockchain as a foundation for sharing healthcare data. Blockchain in Healthcare Today (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Hathaliya, J.J., Tanwar, S.: An exhaustive survey on security and privacy issues in healthcare 4.0. Comput. Commun. 153, 311–335 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Khezr, S., Moniruzzaman, Md, Yassine, A.: Blockchain technology in healthcare: a comprehensive review and directions for future research. Appl. Sci. 9(9), 1736 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Mackey, T.K., et al.: ‘Fit-for-purpose?’-challenges and opportunities for applications of blockchain technology in the future of healthcare. BMC Med. 17(1) (2019). Article number: 68

    Google Scholar 

  15. McGhin, T., Choo, K.-K.R., Liu, C.Z., He, D.: Blockchain in healthcare applications: research challenges and opportunities. J. Netw. Comput. Appl. 135, 62–75 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. DeFrancesco, L., Klevecz, A.: Your DNA broker. Nat. Biotechnol. 37(8), 842 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Patel, V.: Secure and decentralized sharing of medical imaging data via blockchain consensus. Technical report, Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Azaria, A., Ekblaw, A., Vieira, T., Lippmanm, A.: MedRec: using blockchain for medical data access and permission management. In: 2016 2nd International Conference on Open and Big Data (OBD), pp. 25–30. IEEE (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Nugent, T., Upton, D., Cimpoesu, M.: Improving data transparency in clinical trials using blockchain smart contracts. F1000Research 5 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Cheng, X., Chen, F., Xie, D., Sun, H., Huang, C.: Design of a secure medical data sharing scheme based on blockchain. J. Med. Syst. 44(2) (2020). Article number: 52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1468-1

  21. Yue, X., Wang, H., Jin, D., Li, M., Jiang, W.: Healthcare data gateways: found healthcare intelligence on blockchain with novel privacy risk control. J. Med. Syst. 40(10) (2016). Article number: 218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-016-0574-6

  22. Angeletti, F., Chatzigiannakis, I., Vitaletti, A.: The role of blockchain and iot in recruiting participants for digital clinical trials. In: 2017 25th International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM), pp. 1–5. IEEE (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Zheng, X., Mukkamala, R.R., Vatrapu, R., Ordieres-Mere, J.: Blockchain-based personal health data sharing system using cloud storage. In: 2018 IEEE 20th International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services (Healthcom), pp. 1–6. IEEE (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Hardt, D., et al.: The OAuth 2.0 authorization framework. Technical report, RFC 6749, October 2012

    Google Scholar 

  25. Shin, S.: Introduction to JSON (JavaScript object notation). Presentation (2010). www.javapassion.com

Download references

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge the contributions of our students, Paul Sarda and Andrew Davis from Swinburne University of Technology.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia

    Alan Colman & Mohan Baruwal Chhetri

  2. Latrobe University, Melbourne, Australia

    Mohammad Jabed Morshed Chowdhury

  3. CSIRO Data61, Melbourne, Australia

    Mohan Baruwal Chhetri

Authors
  1. Alan Colman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mohammad Jabed Morshed Chowdhury
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mohan Baruwal Chhetri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alan Colman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Paolo Perego

  2. Institute for Computer Technology, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Nima TaheriNejad

  3. Haute école de gestion, University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Maurizio Caon

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Colman, A., Chowdhury, M.J.M., Chhetri, M.B. (2021). Sharing Wearable Health Data Using User-Defined Blockchain Policies. In: Perego, P., TaheriNejad, N., Caon, M. (eds) Wearables in Healthcare. ICWH 2020. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 376. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76066-3_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76066-3_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-76065-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-76066-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation