Cargando…

Healthchain: A novel framework on privacy preservation of electronic health records using blockchain technology

The privacy of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is facing a major hurdle with outsourcing private health data in the cloud as there exists danger of leaking health information to unauthorized parties. In fact, EHRs are stored on centralized databases that increases the security risk footprint and re...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chenthara, Shekha, Ahmed, Khandakar, Wang, Hua, Whittaker, Frank, Chen, Zhenxiang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7725426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33296379
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243043
_version_ 1783620699984756736
author Chenthara, Shekha
Ahmed, Khandakar
Wang, Hua
Whittaker, Frank
Chen, Zhenxiang
author_facet Chenthara, Shekha
Ahmed, Khandakar
Wang, Hua
Whittaker, Frank
Chen, Zhenxiang
author_sort Chenthara, Shekha
collection PubMed
description The privacy of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is facing a major hurdle with outsourcing private health data in the cloud as there exists danger of leaking health information to unauthorized parties. In fact, EHRs are stored on centralized databases that increases the security risk footprint and requires trust in a single authority which cannot effectively protect data from internal attacks. This research focuses on ensuring the patient privacy and data security while sharing the sensitive data across same or different organisations as well as healthcare providers in a distributed environment. This research develops a privacy-preserving framework viz Healthchain based on Blockchain technology that maintains security, privacy, scalability and integrity of the e-health data. The Blockchain is built on Hyperledger fabric, a permissioned distributed ledger solutions by using Hyperledger composer and stores EHRs by utilizing InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to build this healthchain framework. Moreover, the data stored in the IPFS is encrypted by using a unique cryptographic public key encryption algorithm to create a robust blockchain solution for electronic health data. The objective of the research is to provide a foundation for developing security solutions against cyber-attacks by exploiting the inherent features of the blockchain, and thus contribute to the robustness of healthcare information sharing environments. Through the results, the proposed model shows that the healthcare records are not traceable to unauthorized access as the model stores only the encrypted hash of the records that proves effectiveness in terms of data security, enhanced data privacy, improved data scalability, interoperability and data integrity while sharing and accessing medical records among stakeholders across the healthchain network.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7725426
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77254262020-12-16 Healthchain: A novel framework on privacy preservation of electronic health records using blockchain technology Chenthara, Shekha Ahmed, Khandakar Wang, Hua Whittaker, Frank Chen, Zhenxiang PLoS One Research Article The privacy of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is facing a major hurdle with outsourcing private health data in the cloud as there exists danger of leaking health information to unauthorized parties. In fact, EHRs are stored on centralized databases that increases the security risk footprint and requires trust in a single authority which cannot effectively protect data from internal attacks. This research focuses on ensuring the patient privacy and data security while sharing the sensitive data across same or different organisations as well as healthcare providers in a distributed environment. This research develops a privacy-preserving framework viz Healthchain based on Blockchain technology that maintains security, privacy, scalability and integrity of the e-health data. The Blockchain is built on Hyperledger fabric, a permissioned distributed ledger solutions by using Hyperledger composer and stores EHRs by utilizing InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to build this healthchain framework. Moreover, the data stored in the IPFS is encrypted by using a unique cryptographic public key encryption algorithm to create a robust blockchain solution for electronic health data. The objective of the research is to provide a foundation for developing security solutions against cyber-attacks by exploiting the inherent features of the blockchain, and thus contribute to the robustness of healthcare information sharing environments. Through the results, the proposed model shows that the healthcare records are not traceable to unauthorized access as the model stores only the encrypted hash of the records that proves effectiveness in terms of data security, enhanced data privacy, improved data scalability, interoperability and data integrity while sharing and accessing medical records among stakeholders across the healthchain network. Public Library of Science 2020-12-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7725426/ /pubmed/33296379 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243043 Text en © 2020 Chenthara et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Chenthara, Shekha
Ahmed, Khandakar
Wang, Hua
Whittaker, Frank
Chen, Zhenxiang
Healthchain: A novel framework on privacy preservation of electronic health records using blockchain technology
title Healthchain: A novel framework on privacy preservation of electronic health records using blockchain technology
title_full Healthchain: A novel framework on privacy preservation of electronic health records using blockchain technology
title_fullStr Healthchain: A novel framework on privacy preservation of electronic health records using blockchain technology
title_full_unstemmed Healthchain: A novel framework on privacy preservation of electronic health records using blockchain technology
title_short Healthchain: A novel framework on privacy preservation of electronic health records using blockchain technology
title_sort healthchain: a novel framework on privacy preservation of electronic health records using blockchain technology
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7725426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33296379
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243043
work_keys_str_mv AT chentharashekha healthchainanovelframeworkonprivacypreservationofelectronichealthrecordsusingblockchaintechnology
AT ahmedkhandakar healthchainanovelframeworkonprivacypreservationofelectronichealthrecordsusingblockchaintechnology
AT wanghua healthchainanovelframeworkonprivacypreservationofelectronichealthrecordsusingblockchaintechnology
AT whittakerfrank healthchainanovelframeworkonprivacypreservationofelectronichealthrecordsusingblockchaintechnology
AT chenzhenxiang healthchainanovelframeworkonprivacypreservationofelectronichealthrecordsusingblockchaintechnology