Page 342 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 4

STS1080 Asma A. et al.

Analysis of blockchain for healthcare applications
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Asma Adnane , McSeth Antwi , Farhan Ahmad , Chaker Abdelaziz Kerrache ,
Mohsen Farid ;
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1 Department of Computer Science, Loughborough University, UK
2 College of Engineering and Technology, University of Derby, UK
3 Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Ghardaia, Algeria

Abstract
The health industry deal with highly sensitive data which must be managed
securely and carefully. electronic health records (EHRs) hold various kinds of
personal data such as names, addresses, social security numbers, insurance
number… etc, which must never be released to the public. However, this kind
of personal data is highly sensitive and valuable on the black market, which
brings various security risks to the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry
has been looking to adopt new technologies such as Blockchain to cover their
inefficiencies. Indeed, blockchain has been considered as a solution to all the
privacy challenges, and many believe that blockchain is the horizontal
innovation needed to transform various industries. The purpose of this paper
is to carry out a feasibility analysis of blockchain for healthcare scenarios and
conclude whether it’s a suitable technology for the healthcare industry.

Keywords
Blockchain; Healthcare; Security; Privacy; Hyperledger fabric

1. Introduction
In the health industry, such as medical institutions and insurance
companies, the infrastructure running healthcare applications and managing
the related data deals with highly critical assets which are the electronic health
records (EHR). EHR hold various kinds of personal data such as names,
addresses, social security numbers, Medicare numbers… etc which must never
be released to the public. However, this asset has been the target of various
cyberattacks. Indeed, various medical institutions have been hacked and
millions of patients records have been accessed, this kind of personal data is
highly valuable on the black market, as much as $50 per EHR, which increases
the security risks to the healthcare industry (Adefala, 2018). Several laws and
regulations, such as HIPAA and the Data Protection Act 2018 (GDPR), have
been created to provide guidelines to healthcare applications on how personal
data should be managed, processed and secured in order to avoid fraud and
theft.

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