A Blockchain Application for Medical Information Sharing

Abstract

Medical information are private and medical data are valuable for medical research. Medical information sharing is challenging as the data might be manipulated improperly and revealed during the whole operational process. Medical institutions need shared information for scientific research and develop, on the contrary, privacy issue inhibits the sharing process. In this paper, a new business process and a novel architecture for medical information sharing based on blockchain are proposed. Exploiting the advantage of blockchain in recording transactions, information can be shared and verified among parties like a distributed ledger. On the other hand, medical information can be shared securely between users without an intermediary. The main benefit is that both the information and the traces of the transaction can be distributed stored which avoid manipulation and fraud. Consequently, the value of information can be fully utilized.