Hybrid Architecture Based on Blockchain Technology and Smart Contracts for Healthcare Applications

Introduction

Healthcare practitioners around the world are keen to use health information technology solutions such as electronic health records to improve the quality of patient care, while developments in this field are expected to improve the effectiveness of service providers and enable patients and all parties to the health system to have greater control over their data. For health IT solutions to be successful, patients must gain confidence in both providers and in IT solutions that collect and use the patient's health data.

The protection of information collected, used, shared, and stored is of paramount importance to the health care mission. Information security should not be something to think about after a security incident has occurred; rather, it should be integrated into all aspects of information systems development, operations, maintenance, and management. Information security is achieved by implementing a comprehensive security program that includes all elements of the health system.

Healthcare is becoming more efficient in delivering clinical outcomes and more cost-effective through the use of information technology, including computers, electronic applications, and related technologies. However, uses of these technologies and the increased exchange of health information between health service providers also pose a risk to the privacy and security of personal data and personal health information (PHI); Health information that is disclosed to unauthorized individuals, accessed illegally, tampered with, or erased may have devastating effects on the patient's health or even on his life and thus on the health system as a whole.

Although the terms “privacy” and “security” are often used interchangeably, they are two different disciplines; Information security and privacy are two distinct disciplines linked together. To adequately protect privacy, proper security mechanisms are needed. Given the sensitivity of personal information collected, used, and shared in a healthcare environment, it is important to identify and implement appropriate security mechanisms that will protect health data and individuals' privacy. Security and privacy requirements should be identified and necessary controls selected and implemented throughout the system development cycle, and security and privacy protections updated as needed. It is also important that individuals in information security and privacy organisations cooperate to manage security concerns and protect privacy. This helps to discover potential security and privacy issues and to develop and implement approaches to address them.

Privacy practitioners may disagree about the role consent should play in enhancing trust and improving privacy, but it does play an important role in protecting health information. By adopting a holistic approach to privacy, government agencies and entities that create and use new health technologies can improve the health of the public, while maintaining people's trust and expectations about individual privacy. Information privacy and security are of paramount importance to all individuals, government agencies, and private sector organisations. Protecting information in the healthcare sector is more important than in any other sector.

How do security and privacy work together? Security measures are needed to protect the privacy of individuals. Technologies and tools that support privacy are known as privacy-enhancing technologies, and they often consist of security technologies whose use protects people's privacy. Privacy-enhancing technologies can be used to perform functions such as enabling appropriate access and use of data internally and preventing inappropriate disclosure of data externally. However, just as security mechanisms are used to aid privacy efforts, some privacy measures also aid security efforts.

The problem that will be addressed in this paper is how to achieve a balance between the three standard concepts of the success of the health system, which are: “privacy”, “security” and “Efficiency and Effectiveness of Data usage”, Although the terms “privacy” and “security” are often used interchangeably, they are two different disciplines; Protecting information within a healthcare environment can be difficult because it is necessary to exchange highly sensitive healthcare information between a some of the authorized parties while protecting that information from unauthorized access, disclosure, use, modification, and retention. All this while ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in dealing with different types (in terms of nature, structure, and size) of data for healthcare applications.

So the problems that we will address in this paper will revolve around the following fundamental questions: