Blockchain-Based Telemedicine: A Privacy-Preserving Blockchain-Based Application for Healthcare Providers
Keywords:
Blockchain, Data-sharing, Electronic health records, Medical services, Privacy, Security, Smart contracts, TelemedicineAbstract
Regular hospital visits can be costly, especially during pandemics and in isolated places. Medical visits can be reduced when telemedicine services are used through video conferencing, which can save both patients’ health and time. This virtual technology makes it easier to monitor discharged patients. Telemedicine allows patients and doctors to review medical procedures. However, telemedicine involves the exchange of confidential patient information, including medical history, diagnosis, and treatment plans, over digital channels. Traditional telemedicine systems are centralized, and they may lead to data breaches, but Blockchain provides security by eliminating the risk of hacking patient information. This study signifies an application that allows only authorized persons to utilise the telemedicine services and exchange data with the healthcare provider. Telemedicine has the potential to enhance healthcare delivery in terms of convenience, affordability, and accessibility. It enables individuals, particularly those who reside in remote or underserved areas, to access specialised medical care without having to travel.
References
H. Bitar and S. Alismail, “The Role of eHealth, Telehealth, and Telemedicine for Chronic Disease Patients During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Rapid Systematic Review,” Digital Health, vol. 7, 2021.
B. Anthony, “Use of Telemedicine and Virtual Care for Remote Treatment in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic,” Journal of Medical Systems, vol. 44, pp. 1–9, Jun. 2020.
Y.-T. Shen, L. Chen, W.-W. Yue, and H.-X. Xu, “Digital technology-based telemedicine for the COVID-19 pandemic,” Frontiers in Medicine, vol. 8, Jul. 2021.
F. I. Ali, T. E. Ali and A. H. Hamad, "Telemedicine Framework in COVID-19 Pandemic," 2022 International Conference on Engineering and Emerging Technologies (ICEET), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2022, pp. 1–8.
S. Bhaskar, A. Nurtazina, S. Mittoo, M. Banach, and R. Weissert, “Telemedicine during and beyond COVID-19,” Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 9, Mar. 2021.
F. Sarhan, “Telemedicine in healthcare. 1: Exploring its uses, benefits and disadvantages,” Nursing Times, vol. 105, no. 42, pp. 10–13, Oct. 2009.
S. Scalvini, M. Vitacca, L. Paletta, A. Giordano, and B. Balbi, “Telemedicine: A new frontier for effective healthcare services,” Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease, vol. 61, no. 4, 2004.
H. Rivas, “The future of telemedicine after COVID-19,” in Digital Health: From Assumptions to Implementations, 2nd ed., H. Rivas and T. Boillat, Eds. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2023, pp. 35–41.
M. Beck, “How telemedicine is transforming health care,” Wall Street Journal, Jun. 26, 2016.
A. Abugabah, N. Nizamuddin, and A. A. Alzubi, “Decentralized telemedicine framework for a smart healthcare ecosystem,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 166575–166588, Sep. 2020.
H. Kordestani, K. Barkaoui and W. Zahran, "HapiChain: A Blockchain-based Framework for Patient-Centric Telemedicine," 2020 IEEE 8th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH), Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2020, pp. 1-6.
H. M. Hussien, S. M. Yasin, N. I. Udzir, M. I. H. Ninggal, and S. Salman, “Blockchain technology in the healthcare industry: Trends and opportunities,” Journal of Industrial Information Integration, vol. 22, Jun. 2021.
E. Nkereuwem and G. Ansa, “Enhancing data integrity in telemedicine system using blockchain approach,” Research Journal of Science and Technology, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 55–67, Jul. 2023.
H. S. Ullah and S. Aslam, “Blockchain in healthcare and medicine: A contemporary research of applications, challenges, and future perspectives,” arXiv, Mar. 2020.
I. A. Dauda, B. K. Nuhu, J. Abubakar, I. M. Abdullahi, and D. Maliki, “Blockchain technology in healthcare systems: Applications, methodology, problems, and current trends,” Journal of Science, Technology and Education, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 431–443, 2021.
A. Dubey and A. S. Verma, “Effective remote healthcare and telemedicine approaches for improving digital healthcare systems,” in Digital Health Transformation with Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence, C. Chakraborty, Ed. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2022, pp. 273–297.
D. S. Sushma, V. Jaiswal, and T. Pal, “Digital transformation of healthcare sector by blockchain technology,” in Transformations Through Blockchain Technology: The New Digital Revolution, S. M. Idrees and M. Nowostawski, Eds. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2022, pp. 161–179.
V. Garg and J. Brewer, “Telemedicine Security: A Systematic Review,” Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 768–777, May 2011.
F. Ljung, “Secure handling of electronic health records for telemedicine applications,” M.S. thesis, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, 2018.
E. Dulce and J. Hurtado, “The role of the blockchain technology in the elderly care solutions: A systematic mapping study,” in Proceedings of the International Workshop Gerontechnol., Apr. 2021, pp. 23–34.
D. Yonathan et al., “Design of decentralized application for telemedicine image record system with smart contract on Ethereum,” International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, vol. 12, no. 10, 2021.
A. Panigrahi, A. K. Nayak, and R. Paul, “HealthCare EHR: A blockchain-based decentralized application,” International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management (IJISSCM), vol. 15, no. 3, 2022.
S. Khatri, A. Agarwal, R. Kumar, and R. A. Khan, “Use cases of smart contracts in decentralized health infrastructure,” in Advances in Information Communication Technology and Computing, 2023, pp. 497–509.
A. Kaur, S. Bansal, and V. Dattana, “Blockchain in healthcare: A systematic review and future perspectives,” in Deep Learning for Healthcare Decision Making. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2023.
P. Marry, K. Yenumula, A. Katakam, A. Bollepally and A. Athaluri, "Blockchain based Smart Healthcare System," 2023 International Conference on Sustainable Computing and Smart Systems (ICSCSS), Coimbatore, India, 2023, pp. 1480–1484.
P. Banerjee, S. Bilgaiyan, and A. Tikmani, "Application of Blockchain Technology in Healthcare: An Analysis," 2022 International Conference on Computing, Communication and Power Technology (IC3P), Visakhapatnam, India, 2022, pp. 254–259.
A. Haleem, M. Javaid, R. P. Singh, R. Suman, and S. Rab, “Blockchain technology applications in healthcare: An overview,” International Journal of Intelligent Networks, vol. 2, pp. 130-139, 2021.
P. Zhang, D. C. Schmidt, J. White, and G. Lenz, “Blockchain technology use cases in healthcare,” in Advances in Computers, vol. 111. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier, 2018, pp. 1–41.
S. Srivastava, S. V. Singh, R. B. Singh, and H. K. Shukla, “Digital transformation of healthcare: A blockchain study,” International Journal of Innovative Science, Engineering & Technology, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 414–425, May 2021.
H. Sikandar, A. F. Abbas, N. Khan, and M. I. Qureshi, “Digital technologies in healthcare: A systematic review and bibliometric analysis,” International Journal of Online and Biomedical Engineering, vol. 18, no. 8, pp. 34–48, Jun. 2022.
