A blockchain-based protocol for tracking user access to shared medical imaging

Abstract

Modern healthcare systems are complex and regularly share sensitive data among multiple stakeholders, such as doctors, patients, and pharmacists. Patients’ data has increased and requires safe methods for its management. Research works related to blockchain, such as MIT MedRec, have strived to draft trustworthy and immutable systems to share data. However, blockchain may be challenging in healthcare scenarios due to issues about privacy and control of data sharing destinations. This paper presents a protocol for tracking shared medical data, which includes images, and controlling the medical data access by multiple conflicting stakeholders. Several efforts rely on blockchain for healthcare, but just a few are concerned about malicious data leakage in blockchain-based healthcare systems. We implement a token mechanism stored in DICOM files and managed by Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain. Our findings and evaluations revealed low chances of a hash collision, such as employing a fitting-resistance birthday attack. Although our solution was devised for healthcare, it can inspire and be easily ported to other blockchain-based application scenarios, such as Ethereum or Hyperledger Besu for business networks.

Publication
Future Generation Computer Systems